


Ojamashimasu!

by sky_fish



Category: Arashi (Band), V6 (Band)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Misunderstandings, Romance, alternative universe, mention of alcohol consumption, slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-15
Updated: 2017-04-15
Packaged: 2018-10-19 08:54:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 22,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10636524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sky_fish/pseuds/sky_fish
Summary: When Nino's apartment is getting renovated, he forces himself onto Sho to let him stay at his place in the meantime. With this, he does not only intrude into Sho's apartment, but also his life. What Sho doesn't know is, that there's actually a good reason for Nino's behaviour.





	1. Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, I'm back, trying to catch up with crossposting my stuff from lj here. ^^ 
> 
> This story was originally written for my dear yun_miyake in the Shoexchange 2017. I was very insecure if this might be to your liking but I am really happy you enjoyed it! Tbh, partly I really struggled with this story (I think attempted humorous fluffy romance is not my forte XD) but I also had fun with these two idiots lol.  
> Big thank you as always to the people standing behind me, cheering and betaing for me, namely silver_crystall (thanks for bearing with my lamenting), wendyjoly (because my dear half-brain's opinion is always precious to me) and amazing jtaytt (who never fails to provide me quickly with her immensely helpful betawork) and the organizers of the exchange ^^
> 
> Another side-note: The Japanese wording "ojamashimasu" used in the title means something like "sorry for intruding" (literally more like "I will disturb you") and is commonly used as a polite greeting when someone enters another person's house.

"Shooo-chan, come on, say yes, please!" Nino begged for the second time, bumping his half-empty glass of beer onto the table at their favourite yakiniku place.

He was slightly tipsy, that much Sho could tell. Well, but then, they all were kind of tipsy already. He didn't mind that much though. Tipsy, in Sho's eyes, made most people cute. Especially Nino.

"I'm desperate, OK?" Nino continued, pushing his glasses, which had slipped down a little, back on his nose. "Do you want me to sleep under the bridge?!"

The younger man attempted to make his best puppy eyes towards his friends, who tried to ignore them, knowing that they usually worked wonders. After all, those puppy eyes had gained Nino free entrance to the cinema, free popcorn, free burger meals and lots more in the past. Yeah, those puppy eyes had made Sho treat the younger to a lot of his favourite things already. He just had a weak spot for that man, OK? And if it was just something small things like those that made Nino happy, Sho was happy to be the one who made his eyes shine. However, this time, Sho was definitely not thrilled by Nino's idea, no, he was rather reluctant to agree to his request.

"But why does it have to be my place?" Sho frowned, tilting his head as he reached for his own beer. "Can't you stay with... I don't know, your family?"

Nino rolled his eyes. "My parents live too far from my working place, it would be a daily annoyance to travel back and forth, not mentioning the costs for the train and my sister lives abroad, so -"

"And what about one of the others?" Sho prompted.

He nodded towards _the others_ , who were sitting with them at the table. Their friends Aiba and Jun were very busy with each other (no, nothing dirty, you little pervert!), and Ohno was about to drift off to sleep - _his_ version of tipsiness, as so often at their meet-ups on Friday evening. Looking back at Nino, who carefully pushed Ohno's beer glass a bit further from the man so that he wouldn't accidentally knock it over, Sho just earned another very desperate look.

"I can't stay with Aiba-chan, obviously, since he's making a love nest together with our dear J in his apartment," Nino said.

Sho hummed, agreeing, seeing Nino's argument, and then, carefully nodded towards Ohno, while sipping from his beer. As if this was actually an option.

"You know that Oh-chan... I mean, even though he's an adult, he still lives with his parents, come on! It would be _slightly_ strange to go there, I can't disturb the whole family," Nino replied.

"Aren't they almost like your second family?" Sho asked, slightly pouting, as he thought about how close the two guys usually were (and no, he wasn't jealous), "And disturbing _me_ at _my_ place is fine?"

"Oh come on, Sho-chan... you live alone, your place is big enough for two people, it's close to my work and you're the only friend left that I can ask for such a favour," the younger summarized.

Well, it all sounded reasonable, Sho had to admit. It was the logic choice but he very much appreciated living alone in his big enough own place, which was located quite nicely in the centre of Tokyo… all by himself.

"Yeah, come on, Sho-chan, don't be like that. Let Nino live with you, it's just temporary, after all," Aiba chimed in, unexpectedly, since everyone thought, he was too busy with his boyfriend (still, nothing dirty going on here) to actually paying attention to their conversation.

"What do you mean by _like that_ , I'm just... it's normal that I don't want to share my single apartment with someone else, isn't it?" the older man tried to defend himself, not to mention other issues, like the chaos he would have to make disappear if he was actually letting anyone into his apartment. And oh gosh, when was the last time he cleaned the bathroom?!

"Sho-chan, please! I promise, I'll even be helpful," Nino tried the puppy eyes tactic again, and this time, the shell that tried to protect Sho's weak heart was actually starting to crumble.

"I can imagine, how _helpful_ you will be," the man snorted. He couldn't lose this fight without trying to win, at least. Nino could be stubborn, but so could he! "You'll just fool around and play games all night until my neighbours come over to complain!"

Nino pouted. " _Playing games_ is part of my _job_ as a game developer, Sho-chan! Besides, I can behave, you know? I'll turn down the volume, I promise!"

Sho raised a critical eyebrow.

"Listen," Nino continued. "I can do the laundry and help with cleaning and you may not believe it, but I can actually _cook_!" he smiled, as he presented his trump card.

Ok, Sho lost. Let's make _this_ what officially made him give in, Sho thought. He emptied his beer and sighed deeply before he threw a short look towards his friend, who was sitting there, and looking at him with a mix of anticipation and a cute little pout on his lips. Well, who could say no to that sight _and_ the promise of home-cooking, anyway?!

"Fine, you can show up tomorrow in the evening with your stuff," Sho said, trying to buy himself at least a bit time for clearing his place of the most embarrassing things, and then he got rewarded with the most beautiful smile he had ever seen.

"Thank you, Sho-chan!" Nino said. "You're the best!"

Sho blushed and hoped that people would blame it on the alcohol. Just to make sure, he ordered another beer.

*

A part of Sho had hoped that the conversation at the yakiniku place the previous evening had been a dream. Or a bad joke. At least, he wished he had not agreed to Nino's request, Sho thought, when he woke up the next day with a slight hangover from that one beer too much.

But no, it was real, and Nino's mail from this morning, that Sho was looking at right now, he announced his _moving into Sho's place_ at around 5 pm, was proof of it. Sho glanced at the time, and realizing that it was already approaching 1 pm, he quickly sat up in bed. Crap, this meant that he only had about 4 hours to make his place presentable!

It's been a while since Sho had guests at home. He used to work a lot and once he finished work, he preferred relaxing at home, not bothering too much with household chores, or meeting his friends for a nice meal or a visit to the cinema, instead of inviting them over and into his private little chaos. OK, correction, _huge_ chaos.

Sho sighed at the sight of piles of clothes that spread all over his bedroom. He also spotted at least 5 bags full of trash all over his apartment, and found the kitchen sink full with a week's worth of unwashed dishes. Also, the mess he had created in his living room with spread out magazines, newspaper, and other stuff. Yes, even if Sho used to think of himself as an organized person – and his schedule could prove that – cleaning his apartment was definitely not his forte. However, he couldn't allow Nino to see that, so it was high time to fight against his chaos!

*

"Yo!"

Nino's smile was as bright as the sun. At least for Sho.

One aspirin and 4 hours later, the man was showered and his apartment was more or less clean, if you ignored that he just moved most of the chaos from the living room to his bedroom closet and threw a blanket over it. At least, Sho wouldn't feel too embarrassed anymore, to let a guest inside – into the living room, that was. Besides that, Sho's heart was beating like he was just about to take an exam.

Nino was standing in front of his door, dressed in just a simple T-shirt and a comfortable looking pair of jeans. He was packed with a rucksack, a shopping bag and two suitcases, of which at least one must be filled with gaming equipment.

The actual reason why Sho didn't really want Nino in his apartment for weeks was that being around him usually made him _slightly_ nervous. Ever since that one evening, a couple of years ago, when Aiba brought _his good friend_ along to one of their meet-ups, introducing him as "This is Nino, he's a game developer, oh and he's gay and single, by the way" (which had earned him a smack on the head by Nino), it had been like this. This had never happened to Sho before. As if this single cute gay man had casted a magical spell on him at first sight....

Sho was glad that he was usually pretty capable in hiding that fact. It was just a crush. Nino was cute. And funny. And even if he often acted cheekily, he was in fact a really nice person, at least, that's what Sho thought about the young man. However, he never intended to do anything about his crush – why should he risk their friendship by confessing? Hence, he was feeling troubled now, wondering if he might be able to hide his nervousness also for such a long time.

And what if Nino would start to hate him, after living together with him? After all, being friends was never a guarantee that people would get along when sharing their living space too. And Sho had a couple of bad habits. Not only was he a big chaotic, he was also pretty sure that he snored. Crap, hopefully Nino wouldn't hear it from the living room! Maybe he should have told him to bring some earplugs. Oh and he probably should refrain from singing in the shower for a while.

"Sho-chan? Sho!" Nino pulled the other man out of his thoughts.

"Eh? Ah, sorry Nino," Sho replied, stopping his inner monologue.

Nino frowned, slightly worried. "Are you having a hangover? Are you OK?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Sho waved of his concerns.

"Good… so… may I enter your castle now, Sakurai Sho-sama?" the younger man joked, his face back to a broad grin, and without waiting for a response, murmuring a "Sorry for my intrusion,” he put his feet in the entrance area where he took off his shoes before hopping into the corridor while Sho helped him with his luggage.

"For how long do you plan to stay, a year?!" Sho asked with a nervous chuckle, when he almost dropped the heavy suitcase.

"Watch out! My babies are in there!" Nino yelled. "Ah, and renovation work in my apartment will last for 2 to 3 weeks, probably," he repeated what he already told his friend the previous evening. "I'll get a short notice before they finish."

"Hm...," Sho nodded. Man, that would be the longest time he would spend with someone else since he moved out from the university dorm.

When they reached the living room, Nino turned around and lifted the plastic bag he was still holding.

"I bought some fresh groceries in the conbini nearby, I thought I could make dinner, yakisoba with beef and vegetables, what do you think?" he asked, flashing his friend a smile.

"Sounds good!" Sho replied, and he would be lying if he said he didn't mean it. Good thing that he actually cleaned the kitchen...

*

Dinner tasted unexpectedly good. Despite being friends for years, Sho never had the chance to taste Nino's cooking. Gosh, he had missed out on something. How could Nino possibly hide such an ability from his friends for such a long time?

"I'm too lazy to cook, usually, especially if it's only for myself," Nino admitted when he looked at the empty plates as they finished their meal until the last bit. "But since I'll be in your care for the next few weeks..."

"You should do it more often!" Sho suggested whole-heartedly, earning a laughter from his friend.

"Is that an order or your wishful thinking?" the younger man winked at Sho as he got up and collected the empty plates.

"Ah," Sho immediately blushed before he tried to soften his comment. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that you have to cook more while you're here, I mean, you can if you want but no obligation, I just meant, since it was so delicious, it's a waste of talent that you don't cook more often and-"

"It's OK Sho-chan, I'm just teasing you," Nino chuckled. "And who knows, maybe I _want_ to cook more often while I'm here..."

"Let me do the dishes!" Sho yelled, jumping up and following the younger into the kitchen.

"Division of work?" Nino asked with a smirk.

"It's the least I can do after you made us such a fabulous dinner. And well, we have to figure things out if we are stuck together for a while, right?" Sho replied, as he took the plates from Nino and started filling the sink with water, in which he dumped the plates and cooking utensils Nino had used. "Speaking about it, we should make a plan about certain things, don't you think so -," the man turned around but Nino was nowhere to be seen in the kitchen anymore. "Nino?"

Then, Sho could hear rummaging from the living room, and a distant "Huh? Did you say something?" from Nino.

When he stepped into the living room after turning off the water, he wasn't too surprised to find his friend unpacking his gaming consoles and connecting what looked like a thousand cables with his large sized TV screen. He sighed loudly, putting his arms on his hips, when Nino switched on the TV and the first console, placing a disc inside to check if everything was connected properly. When the starting screen showed up, Nino chose the option "resume game" without hesitation. The epic soundtrack of a fantasy game, which Sho had never even heard of started to run too loudly. Quickly, Sho reached for the TV remote and lowered the volume.

"Woops," Nino murmured. "Sorry."

"What are you doing, are you serious?!" Sho asked in disbelief. "I was talking to you, about the plan! Did you even listen to me?"

"You can join me, if you want?" Nino offered with a grin. Sho counted that as a "No".

"Talking about plans, this is _my_ television screen and _I_ decide whether you can play or not, just so you know," Sho said, walking around Nino and stopping in front of the TV screen to block his view.

"Hm... Sho-chan, you're so strict," Nino pouted. "Come on," he stretched his arm, offering his friend a second controller. "Join me for half an hour, so I can test if the multi-player mode of our new game works properly. Don't look so sceptical, games are fun! You'll see, it will make you relax."

"But the plan," Sho wanted to argue, but still took the controller in his hand.

"We can make the plan later on, OK? Please!"

And there they were - Nino's famous, dangerous puppy eyes. Sho melted and the dishes in the sink were completely forgotten.

*

 _Later_ became _too late_ , since Nino didn't even think of stopping his game after half an hour, like he had promised Sho in the first place. And he also didn't allow his friend to drop out, as he had now become his "most important supportive team member", controlling a so-called "healer" in the fantasy game, while Nino played a magician specialized in attacking.

Sho had to admit– even if a fantasy RPG wouldn't be his first choice of games – he actually really enjoyed it. The gameplay was easy, even for a noob like him, the graphic was stunning and the special effects were beyond cool. There were still a few bugs, over which Nino cursed each time and busily scribbled something down in a notebook, telling his colleagues where they needed to fix stuff. Besides that, Sho would say that the game was very promising. Nino smiled happily, when he heard Sho saying that and that alone was worth sacrificing his evening to video games.

As it was approaching midnight, and Sho was seriously becoming tired, yawning every few seconds, when Nino paused the game and asked if Sho wanted to head to bed. He nodded with his mouth opened in another loud yawn.

"Tomorrow evening, no games, though," Sho said after assuring Nino once more, how much fun it was. "We're going to watch a movie together, OK?"

"Movie-night, check," Nino smiled and Sho's heart started beating a little faster.

"We... can make popcorn and drink a couple of beers," Sho kept on babbling.

Despite being tired, he was reluctant to stand up and leave his friend behind. Even if it made him a bit nervous, it was nice spending so much time with him, alone. It was a _pleasant_ nervousness that overtook Sho. He was going to learn more about Nino, than he ever did when they were with their other friends, and he liked that idea. It was fascinating to see the other _working_ (well, for Sho it still looked more like gaming but indeed, it _was_ Nino's job after all) with so much passion and in general, it was just nice being there right next to him. It made his heart feel all warm and light...

"Sounds good!"

"OK, great. Uhm… do you need anything else for the night?" Sho asked, gesturing towards the pillow and blanket he had prepared for his friend on the couch. It wasn't as good as a bed, but it should be comfortable enough to sleep there for a while.

"I'm fine, thanks," Nino replied, focusing on his game again.

"Good… then… don't stay up too long and good night."

"Good night."

Sho placed the gaming controller, which he was still clenching, onto the coffee table and stood up to head towards the bathroom. While brushing his teeth, Sho was indulging in the memories of this evening. It was fun. It has been a while since he was alone with Nino and it was exciting, in a bad, but also in a good way. Maybe more towards in a good way. He even had the chance to taste his crush's cooking after all! And they would have a lazy movie date at home, tomorrow, the man's tired brain pointed out, making his heart jolt in pleasant anticipation. Sho frowned and shook his head, trying to get rid of that stupid thought. This wouldn't be a _date_ , he scolded himself internally, he would just be hanging out with his temporary roommate, that's all!

However, once in bed, it took Sho a while, before he could finally fall asleep, his thoughts occupied with the young man who was still up, gaming, in the room next door, and thinking about which movie they could watch together, tomorrow.

*

Nino was up surprisingly early. For someone who seemed to play games until late at night, the young man obviously didn't need much sleep, Sho assumed, as he found his friend already in the kitchen the next morning, brewing coffee, when he got up.

"Awake already?" Sho asked, trying to sound nonchalant, which wasn't too easy right now seeing Nino looking just fucking adorable with his messy bed hair, his sleep wear on – a black band shirt and red-white checked boxers – and his glasses slightly wonky sitting on his nose. The sight was almost too much for Sho to handle.

"Couldn't sleep anymore," Nino nodded, his voice sounding still a little droopy, as he reached for the first filled coffee mug and handed it to Sho, who gladly took it, breathing in the fresh scent.

"Thanks."

"Do you want me to make breakfast?" Nino offered.

"You're spoiling me," Sho chuckled. "I don't deserve it."

"You let me live here, it's the least I can do," Nino replied as he stepped in front of the fridge to check if there was anything in there that he could use to make something delicious. In the end, he decided on some eggs, a bit of salad and some toast that he found in one of Sho's kitchen cabinets.

"Then I won't decline the offer."

"So what are usually your plans on a Sunday?" Nino asked casually while he started making breakfast.

"I read the newspaper," – which was already placed on the kitchen table, the man noted, thanking Nino for taking it in, "And after breakfast, I'll go for a run around the park nearby," and no, Sho wasn't lying just to impress Nino at this point, he _really_ used to go running on Sundays. "Ah, do you want to join me?"

"Sports? Me?" Nino chuckled as he distributed some fried eggs and salad onto two plates and turned to join Sho at the table. "No, thanks, I'll spare both of us the embarrassment."

"So what are your plans for today?" Sho asked, keeping the conversation going.

Nino cutely tilted his head when the hot steam from his mug clouded his glasses. "More game testing I guess and… don't know…"

"Do you always work on the weekends?" the other man wanted to know, frowning. Somehow, Nino's job seemed to eat so much more time than he expected. And much more than his own boring office job, which at least was over after a certain number of working hours, and left him with a weekend to spend as he pleased.

"It's also my hobby, so I don't mind investing some extra hours in it," Nino explained, before he smirked. "And to compensate for all the hard work I'm doing… I have a date in the evening."

Sho's heart stopped beating for a second. Did Nino forget that…

"A date?" he asked, with a crooked voice. "But we wanted to–"

"Of course, we're going to watch a movie! That's what I meant. I was joking, sorry," the younger man chuckled.

Sho blushed. Nino had just referred to their movie plans in the evening as a _date_. Of course, it was just a joke, what else, but he didn't forget that they had plans, and that made Sho happy.

"Did you choose a movie already?" Nino asked, sipping his coffee.

"I kind of have an idea what to watch, yes," Sho nodded. This question had followed him into his dreams last night, after all.

"Then I'll leave the decision to you."

After they finished eating and Sho – this time for real – cleaned the dishes, he went to change into his sportswear. After saying good-bye to Nino, who was already sitting in front of the TV screen with his gaming controller in hands, Sho exited his apartment, starting to run as soon as he reached the stairs. His thoughts were still with his crush who would – well, not really but you could see it that way – be waiting at home for him to return. Maybe, it really wasn't _that_ bad allowing Nino to stay at his place. Sho felt his lips twitch and he was convinced that he must be wearing the most stupid grin on earth right now.  
*

After his usual round through the park, greeting some neighbours when passing by, even more cheerfully than usual, Sho jogged a bit further, towards his goal – the video rental store around the block, to pick up the movie of his choice. Ken, the store's clerk, and the one who actually recommended the said movie to Sho once in the past, grinned widely when he spotted his regular customer in front of the counter.

"Did you finally find someone who's willing to watch this with you?" Ken asked cheekily, when he handed the DVD in a small plastic bag to Sho.

"Well, I didn't tell him which movie I chose, it will be a surprise," Sho murmured, blushing slightly as he took the bag.

" _Him_?" Of course, Ken caught on to Sho's mumbling. "Are we talking about some random him or _that_ him?"

Sho blushed deeply, unable to suppress an embarrassed smirk. Yeah, some time ago, he casually mentioned in front of the other that there was a guy he liked. Sho wasn't really the type to share such information about himself with the whole world, in fact, not even his friends knew, but to his defence – he was tipsy at that time and Ken found him lingering around in front of the romance movie shelf. The man asked if Sho needed a recommendation, and even before he realized what he was doing, everything about his secret crush just babbled out of Sho. After all, Ken was the movie dealer whom he trusted. At that time at least, it felt like the most logical thing to do.

Ken laughed and threw him a wink. "Good luck, then, I'm awaiting your review!"

Sho half-jokingly rolled his eyes at Ken, wishing him a nice weekend, and left, pressing the small bag close to his chest. He had no idea, if this was actually a good idea or the most stupid one he ever had. He knew that the movie inside didn't really belong to a genre that he and his friends would usually watch in the cinema, but for a movie-date (yes, his heart had finally decided to indeed see it as a date), it should be a good choice. At least, Sho hoped that Nino wouldn't hate him for this.

*

Sho had taken his time on the way home, not without stopping by at a supermarket to pick up a six-pack of canned beer and some snacks, including the promised popcorn. When he arrived home, he was brave enough to yell an "I'm home" into his apartment – mostly because he was kind of roleplaying in his mind (with him and Nino as a couple actually living together instead of just temporarily) than seriously. However, when a cheerful "Welcome home!" reached his ears from the other side of the apartment, his heart almost burst and his head turned deeply red.

Sho quickly rushed into the bathroom to take a shower in record time – he couldn't allow Nino to see him all sweaty and with a head the colour of a tomato – and then put on his best looking home clothes, to make sure that he was comfortable, but not too much, in front of the other man. Sho laughed at himself when he realized how much thought he put into this whole thing. Probably, Nino wouldn't care at all what he was wearing at home...

With a towel around his neck for drying his hair, the man exited the bathroom again and headed towards the living room. He had expected Nino to be there and still playing his games, but the game was paused and Nino was nowhere to be seen – until Sho realized that the door of the balcony was opened and decided to take a look outside.

Indeed, Nino was there, hanging up some freshly washed laundry, Sho found out in surprise. So Nino's words had not been just empty promises.

"I thought, the weather is so nice, the laundry would dry quickly if I hung it up outside," the young man said when he saw his friend's surprised face.

Feeling the warm sun tickling his face, Sho nodded. "That's a good idea, yes. Can I help you?"

"I'm almost finished, don't bother," Nino shook his head.

"Ok, thank you!" Sho smiled.

To be honest, he never expected Nino to really be _that_ helpful. He had already been surprised over Nino cooking and making breakfast, and now he was even doing the laundry? If things kept on like this, living together with the other would be much more comfortable than Sho had ever expected. It was almost like they were newlyweds... Sho felt a stupid grin spreading on his face and warmth growing in his chest, well, that was until he recognized some specific pieces of clothing that were being hung up – wait... are those...

"My _underwear_!" Sho suddenly almost freaked out.

He quickly pushed himself between a shocked Nino and the laundry rack on which the young man had just finished hanging up Sho's briefs. He blushed deeply, cursing himself inwardly.

"Did – did you see them?!" Sho asked in a slightly shaky voice before he covered his eyes with one hand. "Of course, you saw them, you just hung them up, oh gosh, that's so embarrassing..."

"What's embarrassing about underwear, Sho-chan?" Nino arched an eyebrow and reached for a couple of socks in the laundry basket.

Sho bit his lips. "It's just – I – you were not supposed to see my underwear!"

"Nothing to be ashamed of," Nino chuckled, resuming his task. "In fact, I may say that I'm pretty impressed. I didn't know you're wearing such expensive brands underneath. But they feel really good, black and tight -"

Was it Sho's fault that now his thoughts were running wild and he imagined himself wearing his briefs – only - and Nino standing dangerously close to him, letting his fingers slide over the fabric of the clothing, repeating these exact same words? The man blushed and quickly pulled his towel from around his neck to the front, holding it... well... in front of his lower body.

"Please, stop that!" Sho murmured, his body slightly shaking. He just hoped that Nino wouldn't notice...

The other man looked at him with questioning eyes. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No, just... just stop talking about my underwear and next time, _please_ let me wash my underwear by myself!" Sho managed to say as he made his way to the balcony door, ready to vanish inside.

"I really don't mind, you know?" Nino murmured, but was cut off by Sho's probably a bit harsher than planned sounding words.

"Each to his own underwear, OK?" the other man said, as he was about to enter the apartment again, not daring to look back at his friend. "That will be one of our rules from now on."

Sho could almost feel Nino's stare on his back, but he didn't dare turning around. After another second of silence, Nino resumed his task, flapping a shirt flat, which he then hung up.

"OK, chill, Sho," he said in a low voice. "I just want to be nice."

Sho could hear that his friend seemed to be hurt by his harsh reaction, and finally managed to turn around again and face him. "I know, I'm sorry, really, I'm grateful for your help just..."

"Just not your underwear, yeah," Nino replied, faking a smile towards Sho.

Damned, the older man sighed, when he was back in the living room. Did he mess up now?

*

Nino finished his task in silence and when he came back into the living room, he ignored Sho – who admittedly didn't really know how to react now – and simply sat down to continue his game while Sho decided to try focus on a book that he started reading recently. Nino apparently had been considerate and muted the game, which Sho would appreciate if only the sudden silence didn’t feel like tons of stones on his chest, making him aware of his guilty conscious even more. After a while, giving up on trying to concentrate, Sho closed his book and cleared his throat.

"Nino?"

Button smashing could be heard, mixed with a small, "Hm?"

"Uhm... Are you mad at me?" Sho asked carefully.

"No," the other man shook his head but was still focusing on the TV screen and the monster he was currently beating up.

"Sure thing?"

"Sure thing." Nino won his fight. "Yes!"

Still, things felt strange and Nino felt distant, so Sho decided to use one of his trump cards – bribing the other. "Do you want us to get some ice-cream after lunch?"

"Hm...," Nino tilted his head. He didn't sound convinced.

"There's a really good ice-cream place just around the corner," Sho kept on. "Come on, I'll treat you."

Nino paused the game and looked at Sho with big eyes. "OK!"

Since midday was approaching, they didn't wait for too long before they went outside. They decided to grab a snack from a take-away restaurant nearby before going for some ice cream, and soon after, Nino was back to all smiles, just as Sho liked his friend best. He then took the chance to apologize again for his reaction on the balcony, but Nino just waved it off and everything was fine.

*

They fell _victim_ to "The Victim", a Thai horror thriller, faster than expected. The story about a young Thai actress, who takes the job to re-enact disgusting crime scenes for the Royal Thai police, and gains popularity due to her talent, was not only intriguing and disturbing by itself, but also extremely frightening, as soon as the first ghosts made their appearances on the screen.

Knowing that usually, neither his friends nor himself were into such stuff, Sho had already expected it to be a roller coaster to watch this movie. He did _not_ expect it to make Nino as well as himself jump on the couch, to the extent that the popcorn they made was spread over the coffee table instead of staying inside the big bowl, and their beer was not even touched, fearing they might spill it over their clothes.

If Sho had planned to use the horror movie as some kind of tool to make him and Nino get closer (yeah, he himself had fallen victim to this shitty tactic once in the past), he wasn't so sure if he could count the result as a success or not. Indeed, the two of them were glued together now, sitting there, embracing each other – but in sheer fear rather than in any kind of possible romantic connection.

Sho's miscalculation might derive from the fact that he had completely failed to think through the scenario properly. In his mind he had imagined it perfectly. He and Nino would sit there, casually, eat their popcorn and chat a bit while following the story on screen and as soon as it became scary, Nino would seek protection with Sho. He would then throw his arm around the younger man's shoulder and assure him that nothing would harm him as long as he was with him and Nino would find Sho reliable and cool.

In fact, this was exactly the way how Sho's ex-boyfriend got him. He remembered quite well how he was on his first movie date with Okada and how cool and reliable the other looked in Sho's eyes. He wanted to be someone like that too, in Nino's eyes, but well... he messed up. Maybe it would have turned out better if he had actually _known_ the movie before watching it together with the other or if he would just be a bit tougher in general. He should at least have considered that he himself was at least as scared of horror movies as Nino seemed to be.

Now, there was no trace of reliability and coolness, they were both simply scared and happy to be able to grab the nearest thing, as their nerves were on edge when the movie took an unexpected twist.

Sho was close to tears at the end of the movie and had to pull himself together in order not to cry in relief that it was finally over, and Nino, still trembling, simply didn't move until the last names of the ending credits rolled off the screen. Then, he immediately let go off Sho's arm which he had been clamping on, reached for his beer, downed it and let out a huge sigh.

"Now _that_ was one thrilling movie, Sho-chan," he said, chuckling. "Good choice."

Sho chuckled in response, hoping that he didn't sound as unsettled as he still felt after watching that piece of horror. He had failed miserably.

"Ken-kun from the nearby video rental store recommended it to me. He'll be excited to hear that it was... well, entertaining," Sho replied.

"Indeed... entertaining," Nino laughed.

In fact, the movie had freaked out Sho so much, that he felt the urge to switch on the TV to watch some trivial talk show or something similar, to erase the tensed feeling that was keeping his body stiff even now. Once more, he was reminded why he usually didn't watch movies like this. As interesting as they were, as frightening they were, too. However, Sho didn't want to act like a chicken now and so, he stood up, gathered the uneaten popcorn back into its bowl, before standing up again, announcing that they better go to sleep, since tomorrow was the start of a new week. Nino agreed.

About half an hour later, Sho finished with cleaning the kitchen and was brushing his teeth, getting ready to read a couple more pages of his book, hoping to distract his mind from following the memories of the scary movie earlier. He was lying in bed, comfortably underneath his heavy blanket, and on one side – his most favourite position – and his nose buried in his book, as planned. The only light in the room was the dim light from his night stand, enough to make reading possible, but keeping most of the room dark.

When suddenly, Sho heard the door of his bedroom being pushed open, he was ready to sit up and scream, but he was frozen, unable to move. Then, his brain reminded him that it was pretty unlikely that some kind of ghost would come and haunt him, rather it would be Nino, probably needing something before heading to bed. When Sho finally was able to move again, his breath and heartbeat having calmed down, he turned, but there was no one standing in the doorway. Sho frowned.

"Nino?" he asked into the half-darkness of his room, but instead of receiving a reply, he almost jumped for real this time, when he noticed something crawling underneath his blanket, coming closer to him. "Nino?!"

"Hm?"

The young man pushed his black mob of hair out from underneath the blanket, looking up at Sho, his hands clenching the fabric of the other man's shirt, who dropped his book, trying to focus onto what was happening. Apparently, Nino had just decided to crawl into _his_ bed and so, Sho's heavy heartbeat returned within a second. What was going on here?! Was Nino drunk?! But he only had one beer – admittedly, he downed it like a glass of water, but still...

"What are you doing here?" Sho asked, trying to keep his voice as steady as possible, but he would be lying if he said he wasn't nervous now.

Nino, instead of replying immediately, crawled even closer, burying his face against Sho's back. He let one arm slide around his waist, _hugging_ him from behind, and entangling their feet. Sho took a deep breath, trying to calm down, but it didn't work.

"Nino?!"

"Shh...," the other whispered. "I'm going to sleep." He hugged Sho tighter, making his heartbeat speed up even more.

"This is _my_ bed," Sho argued. " _Your_ bed is the couch in the living room."

"It's uncomfortable," Nino murmured against Sho's back, he could feel the warm breath through his T-shirt, making Sho shiver slightly.

"D-Do you want to have another blanket?" the man offered insecurely.

Nino shook his head, rubbing his nose against Sho's back with every movement.

"Your bed is huge enough to share, isn't it?" the younger asked.

"Then why are you glued to my back?" Sho shot back.

"I'm cold and you're warm," the younger man replied. "Natural survival instinct."

Sho didn't reply for a while (although he could have called Nino a liar, since he didn't feel cold at all), just lying there, trying not to move, feeling Nino's sudden presence all over his body. It felt a bit familiar, since Sho could remember an evening a few years ago, when Nino became so drunk during their friends' gathering that he was unable to move by himself and Sho offered to take him back home – giving him a piggy back ride. Back then, Nino also felt warm and cuddled close to him...

"Are you still scared by the movie?" Sho finally asked after a few seconds of awkward silence.

" _You_ were scared by the movie," Nino chuckled. "I may remind you of your girlish scream from before."

Sho wanted to forget about it. It was embarrassing like hell. "And _you_ 've been shaking like crazy since the middle of the movie," he gave back, pouting slightly.

"I told you, I'm cold!" Nino protested.

"Yeah yeah," Sho rolled his eyes, but then, he turned his head, suddenly worrying. "You're not getting sick, are you?"

"I'm not, don't worry. Just let me warm up a little, OK?"

Despite wanting to be close to the younger man just now, before during their movie session, _this_ was almost too much for Sho to handle. This was out of his control, it was unexpected, it was – again – completely throwing him off course. What was Nino even thinking?! If he knew what his behaviour was triggering in Sho, he would probably stop doing something like that right away...

"Don't do anything strange, you hear me?" Sho whispered. He didn't even know why he said that, but apparently, Nino was still awake enough to catch it.

Nino hummed. "Strange? Like… tickling you?"

Sho started squealing as soon as he felt Nino's fingertips tickling over his stomach, up his sides, as if he knew exactly where Sho was the most ticklish! The man started struggling, trying to grab Nino's hands and make him stop, and yelling desperately, "Stop that! Stop!" until they ended up facing each other, with Sho managing to wrap Nino into the blanket so that he couldn't reach and tickle him any longer, his own arms wrapped around the bundle of blanket and Nino, in order to keep him from moving. Sho breathed heavily from the unexpected exercise.

They stayed like this, until Nino finally spoke up again. "Now I feel warm…," he murmured into his blanket wrap, and after another moment of silence, he continued. "Sho?"

"Hm?"

"What made you think that it's a good idea to watch a horror movie?"

Sho blushed, trying to hide his embarrassment behind a chuckle. "A friend recommended it to me but… I wasn't brave enough to watch it alone so I thought with you around it would be OK," he replied honestly, nevertheless he kept the other reason why he had chosen such a movie.

"So you didn't just want to look cool in front of me?" Nino joked. "Not that you managed to do that, since you were as scared as hell."

"What are you saying…," Sho chuckled. No, he couldn't tell Nino that he actually hit the nail on the head, especially now that Sho had failed so miserably.

"I guess we're both not really the horror movie type, right?" Nino continued, closing his eyes. "Let's watch something different next time."

Sho nodded, already mentally browsing the shelves of the rental video store, asking Ken what he would recommend for another _movie-date_. When he wanted to ask Nino, if he had any preferences, Sho looked down to his side, only to find Nino breathing slowly, his eyes shut and his whole appearance as innocent as one of an angel.

"Are you kidding me, you fell asleep within seconds…," Sho smirked, and he couldn't help but reach one hand to his friend's face and brush a few strands of hair aside, caressing his soft skin.

Trying to make himself comfortable too and slowly unwrapping Nino so that he could get back his share of the blanket in order not to feel cold, Sho accepted his defeat. Nino would stay in his bed for tonight, it seemed, and he could do nothing about it. Maybe, he didn't want to, even if he knew that it might become a bit difficult to find proper sleep now...

*

When Sho woke up again, after a very short night, Nino was already gone. Sho wasn't sure if he should feel relieved or sad about that fact. The bed felt strangely empty now, although he should be used to it by now, since the last time he shared his bed with someone had been a couple of years ago, with his ex. And what was he expecting, to be waken with a good morning kiss?! Certainly not... but it would have been nice to see Nino's innocent sleeping face being so close once more...

It was not easy for Sho to fall asleep last night. His heart wouldn't allow him to fall asleep for quite a while, the younger man's presence made Sho feel extremely nervous, especially since the other was cuddling him so closely. However, somehow, some time, he managed to sleep, even if it was just for a couple of hours before they had to get up again.

Nino was already awake and apparently off to his office, as Sho read on a note that his friend left on the kitchen table, together with the message that there was fresh-cooked rice in the rice cooker and some miso soup in the pot on the stove that he should just warm up for breakfast.

Sho blushed when he ate the prepared breakfast, the domestic warmth that was filling his heart, almost feeling natural. He was feeling so happy over such little things, that he would have never expected it. Sho swore to himself that he would be responsible for dinner tonight. Yeah, even if he wasn't capable of cooking, it didn't mean he couldn't guarantee for a good dinner for Nino and himself. After all, it would be too much to expect for Nino to do the cooking every day, and so Sho quickly texted the other, telling him that he would treat him to some delivery from whatever place he liked. He wasn't surprised, when just about five minutes later, Nino texted him that he wanted to eat hamburger.

*

First thing that Sho needed to do though, after a long and exhausting Monday in the office, was taking a bath. Nino was home already, saying that he came back in the early afternoon, doing the rest of his work from home, and since he took a late lunch, he wasn't too hungry yet. He told Sho that he should take his time with the bath first. With this, Sho found himself soaking in the bathtub after a quick shower, leaning back and enjoying the hot water relaxing his muscles.

That was, until someone entered the bathroom, which irritated Sho extremely, since he had _told_ Nino that he would be in the bathroom and that should be enough to be counted as "Please do not disturb". But who else, other than Nino, would it be, Sho wondered, if it was some kind of intruder, a thief maybe, or even worse, a murderer?!

Sho stiffened but somehow managed to turn and face the one who dared to disturb his precious bathing time. Of course, it was Nino.

OK, Sho was actually relieved that neither he nor Nino or their possessions were in actual danger. However, realizing, that _Nino_ was standing in his bathroom, while he was sitting in the bathtub, _naked_ (of course, what else?), he froze again with his face starting to burn from the red on his cheeks.

"Nino! What the hell are you doing in here?!" the man asked, panicking, and tried to sink a little deeper into the bathtub. He started to worry immediately. Was the water actually cloudy enough to assure that Nino would not see his… you know what?

"I wanted to help and ask if I could help you wash your back or something," Nino said, nonchalantly.

"N-no, thank you!" Sho shot immediately. "Can you please get out now, I'm – I'm _naked_!"

"You don't say!" Nino chuckled as he leaned against the bathroom wall. "And I thought I'd see you in your merman cosplay."

"You're joking," Sho deadpanned.

"I am," Nino replied. "Except," he raised an eyebrow. "You… _do_ have such a cosplay?"

"Heaven forbid!" the other man exclaimed.

"What a pity."

"Are you into such stuff?!" Sho asked, shocked.

Nino shrugged. "Well, since I have work with games and a lot of fans are doing cosplay, I also kind of developed an interest for it."

"You're joking," Sho frowned.

"I am," Nino admitted with a smirk. "But I'm not joking about wanting to help you so... need anything? It's my way of thanking you for your hospitality."

"I'll bury you in hospitality if you just leave the bathroom now, please! This is embarrassing and I already washed my back so thank you very much," Sho protested. Too much was too much!

As requested, Nino left with a nonchalant shrug and the tension left Sho's body as soon as the other closed the door behind him. Sho sighed. He wondered, if he had reacted in a rude way, verbally pushing Nino outside, who honestly only seemed to have the intention to _help_. However, wasn't it kind of _strange_ how serious the other took it?

First, Sho had expected the other to be a lazy sloth lingering around on the couch and gaming all day long, wanting to be spoilt by Sho, like he tended to do anyways, but the case was on the contrary and that really confused Sho. Just because he let Nino stay at his place, it didn't mean that he needed to act as his... wife. Or house-slave... of whatever Nino saw himself as, by offering to cook, doing the laundry and apparently not even backing off from intruding into the bathroom to give Sho a hand (no pun intended). What was going on?

Sho was still wondering about Nino's strange behaviour, as he dried his hair with a towel. Maybe he should try to talk to him during dinner, he thought, they still needed to sort out some kind of plan, anyway.

"No... no…."

Sho could hear Nino's voice from the living room when he exited the bathroom, rubbing his hair dry. He frowned. Who was the other man talking to? "What else should I do? I'm so bad at this, seriously…"

When Sho silently approached Nino, who sitting on the couch, from behind. The young man had his phone between his head and his shoulder, and a gaming controller in his hands, the silent but still active screen in front of the man.

"What?! _Tell_ him?!" Nino out a desperate chuckle. "We had that topic already, and guess how I ended up in _this_ situation instead? Exactly, I can't!... No… no, I'm not giving up… yet… but - hah… I _know_ , Masaki but… maybe I should ask _you_ to just tell him?" the young man stopped his game, obviously getting worked up by the situation. "Hell, no! That wasn't a request, gosh, I was joking. I don't want you to - we're not in kindergarten…"

Sho started feeling like he was eavesdropping on something that wasn't supposed to be heard by his ears, and as curious as he might be, it started to feel weird . So, he stepped further into the living room and cleared his throat, showing Nino that he was present, and that he might have heard parts of the conversation. To his surprise, as soon as Nino saw him, he blanked.

"Ah, fuck… uh, Masaki, I have to go. Talk to you later!" the young man babbled quickly, ending the phone call as fast as possible.

Sho frowned at his sudden reaction. "Tell what to whom?" he asked, trying to sound casual, as he approached his friend and taking place next to him on the couch.

"Nothing," Nino said, flashing Sho a smile.

Of course, Sho knew that he wasn't honest. He had heard everything after all. Well, not enough to know who the talk was about, but enough to know that there was _something_. But who were they talking about? And what was going on? It almost sounded as if Nino was talking about his secret crush and not being successful in getting any further in the situation… so, was he talking about Ohno?

"That was Aiba, wasn't it? Come on, what were the two of you talking about just now?" Sho asked, deciding that it was not an option to hide his curiosity.

A stab in his heart would be painful, but he wanted to know the truth. It wasn't a mystery that Nino was fond of Ohno, so it wouldn't be such a big surprise if he was interested in him _that_ way. Sho already wondered about that a couple of times. Further, it wasn't like Sho was planning to actually make a serious move on Nino anyway...

"Nothing important," the other man replied.

Sho arched an eyebrow and decided to take a step further. Maybe he could get Nino to talk to him like this. "You sounded troubled, maybe I can help?"

"Thanks but, really, it's nothing," Nino shook his head.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, sure."

Fine, Sho understood if someone didn't want to talk about a certain subject. He got it. It hurt even more, knowing that Nino obviously didn't even consider him a close enough friend to talk about something like that, but he couldn't force him to do so, right?

"Alright," Sho sighed, giving up on the topic from his end. He tried to smile. "Want to order something for dinner now?"

"Yes, Hamburger!" Nino beamed.

TBC


	2. Part 2

Sho ordered from Nino's favourite burger restaurant nearby, and they spent the time until the delivery boy rang the door bell playing Nino's game. Sho went to get and pay the ordered dinner, quickly set the table and then called Nino to join him at the dining table. The young man was there, faster than the other could finish his sentence, already looking at his juicy burger with huge eyes. They enjoyed the meal, with the silence only broken by some satisfied humming and praising of the delicious meat, the sauce, and the fresh taste of the vegetables.

"This was delicious, thank you, Sho-chan!" Nino slightly bowed after he finished the last bite of his burger.

Sho laughed, happy that Nino enjoyed his dinner so much. "My pleasure. I wished I could cook something like that by myself but I guess it's better to have this delivered in order not to poison us."

Nino smiled, slightly rolling his eyes to signal his friend that he shouldn't talk his own skills down so much. However, since he knew how bad Sho always claimed to be at cooking, he didn't dare say more about the topic.

They were too full for dessert, which Sho had ordered too, and so they placed their fruits salads in the fridge to eat them later in the evening. After Sho suggested Nino to take a break from his game and join him in watching some drama on the couch, they settled next to each other, each with a can of beer in their hands.

Soon, they were bound by the story of a young female police officer following her work. She seemed to possess an exceptional ability of reading other people's feelings, which made her a genius in her job as she was able to understand a culprit's motive for a crime almost immediately. However, in her private life she was kind of a helpless case, unable to communicate her own feelings properly. This gap in personality made it impossible for her to confess her feelings for her colleague, who she was in love with, and so she kept on doing brilliant jobs and at the same time failing miserably in her private affairs. It was an amusing drama to watch, but somehow, Sho also felt sorry for the main character, especially since it was so obvious that her colleague liked her back but misunderstood her strange behaviour as rejection...

"Sho...," Nino suddenly asked, his eyes glued to the TV screen and his arms crossed. He was wearing a small frown, looking more serious than Sho had ever seen him in a while.

"Hm?" Sho asked, lifting his eyebrows.

Nino only exchanged a quick glance with him, before focusing on the screen in front of him again. His lips were pressed together, and after hesitating for another second, he finally spoke of what was on his mind.

"Have you ever been in love?"

Sho almost choked on air. This was the last thing he had expected to hear from his friend.

"Why that sudden question, Nino?"

"I'm just wondering…"

Was Nino now going to tell Sho what he and Aiba had been talking about on the phone just before? Sho's heart started beating faster. He didn't really know if he was ready to talk about such a topic with his _crush_ but didn’t he feel left out and not considered as a good friend just before, when Nino didn't want to tell him? If he was honest, he even felt a little jealous towards Aiba, who seemed to know so much more about the young man... If now was his chance to get closer to Nino, he shouldn't ruin it, right?

"Are you searching for advice?" Sho finally offered.

"Well..."

Nino reached one of his hands behind his head to scratch his neck in a slightly embarrassed gesture. He looked cute, doing so, being hesitant to continue the talk. When he didn't say anything more, Sho took over to continue the conversation.

"To be honest, I'm not too experienced in dating and such…," he started, diving into his memories from the past years. Even before he could continue, he heard Nino chuckling from besides him.

"And I always wondered why," the younger man sighed. "I mean, the girls must be queueing to become your bride, no? Even if you can't cook, and you're a bit messy, you're definitely the biggest fish in the tank."

Sho's heart jumped and he blushed, hearing Nino talking about it. Maybe he was fantasizing but he felt like he was being praised immensely, even if Nino probably didn't really mean it.

"Maybe the _girls_ are the problem in this whole situation," Sho said, deciding to go for the truth. Not that this should be a talk about him, though...

"Eh? What do you mean by that?" Nino frowned at him.

"Well, let's say I've been in love once, but things didn't turn out well and there were also no girls involved," the other man explained. When Nino looked at him, all blank – well, Sho didn't exactly wear it on his sleeves that he was gay, and Aiba was probably the only one from his circle of friends who knew about it officially – he continued. "But let's talk about your case, maybe I can give you a tip -"

Even before Nino could say anything though, suddenly, his cell phone rang, making him jump in surprise. He quickly reached for it and looking at the caller's ID he murmured, "Ah shit, sorry, it's Oh-chan," giving Sho an apologetic look.

Sho felt a sting right through his heart. This was simply confirming his suspicions... but what could he do against it? He just nodded and smiled.

"It's fine, go take the call."

"It's not that important, I can call him back," Nino said, suddenly blushing, "I'm sure he just wants to go for a drink –"

"No no, it's OK," Sho shook his head, fighting his jealousy.

"OK... I'll be out for a while then," Nino replied, jumping up from the couch, his cell phone pressed against his chest as he made his way to the entrance area.

"Come back home safely," Sho yelled after the young man.

"Sure. See you later," Nino's voice could be heard, before he finally picked up the phone. "Ah, Oh-chan... yes... I'm on my way -"

The door was shut and silence fell over the apartment, only the noise from the television could be heard. Sho sighed heavily and let himself sink deeper into the soft fabric of the couch. He lifted his hands, rubbing his face, as he let out a frustrated groan.

What the hell was this shitty timing of Ohno?! Of course, Nino would prefer going to spend time with _him_ instead of chatting with Sho over past loves and whatever this conversation might lead to. What did Sho expect? That he would tell Nino the story of him and his ex-boyfriend... and then? Then, Nino would tell him about his crush on Ohno and Sho would feel all jealous and unable to give Nino the advice the other might be searching for...

Or he should just be honest with Nino and tell him that he should start dating _him_ instead of trying his luck with Ohno? But then, Sho had sworn to himself that he would never ever risk a friendship for a relationship again... Never. Last time it didn't turn out well and he didn't only lose his boyfriend at the time of their breakup, but one of his best friends as well. Maybe, rather than risking anything, he should warn Nino not to repeat the same mistake with Ohno, or was this just Sho's jealous heart wanting to separate them? He didn't know. He was confused. And ever since Nino was living with him, his confusion had become worse by a hundred times over!

*

After Nino texted him that it would take him a bit longer before he would come back home, Sho gave up on waiting for the other man's return and decided to head to bed, reading, after the end of the drama episode and a short news program. Nino had a spare key so he would be able to let himself in whenever he came back, anyway, and Sho felt like he wanted to drown himself in a good book, which usually worked wonders for him when trying to distract his busy mind.

However, as he was now lying in bed, his book opened in front of him, his mind was unable to focus. Instead, his thoughts jumped from the happenings in the book, back onto the scene from before, on the couch to the topic that he and Nino were talking about, well... had _started_ talking about, anyway.

In the end, Sho gave up on reading and instead took his cell phone with a determined look on his face, entering LINE and searching for Aiba's contact. It wasn't hard to find since the other was usually the first one in his recent chats list, as he seemed to have taken over the responsibility of sending all of his friends cute animal baby pictures at least three times a day. Sho had to admit, it made him smile and it already saved a few pretty gloomy days in the past, so he didn't mind.

The man pondered a while over if he really should text his friend about this issue and how he should formulate his message in order not to sound... weird... but in the end, he assumed that there was no way to get around appearing weird in asking this question anyway, so he just went for it. It was Aiba, he would be talking to after all, one of his oldest and closest friends, it should be ok, Sho thought.

[Do you know if Nino likes someone?] Sho simply typed.

Although his heart was beating faster and he doubted that he would be able to find sleep anytime soon, he decided to put away his phone and give his book chapter another chance.

Most likely, Aiba was either already sleeping, or busy with Jun (and yes, at this time of the day, dirty thoughts were allowed), and he didn't really expect any reply before the next morning. He was surprised, when his phone actually vibrated just a few seconds later and Aiba indeed texted him back, accompanied with – only Aiba would do something like that - a _photo_ of him and Jun together in the foamy bathtub (no dirty parts shown though, sorry), something that Sho seriously wanted to unsee...

[ _Hey Sho-chan, still awake? Jun says hello too! ;D I'm surprised you're asking that. What do you mean, if he likes someone?_ ]

Sho stared at his phone for a second, before he replied.

[Hello back from me] Sho typed, deciding to ignore and not say anything about the bath picture of his two friends. [Uhm, I mean, if he's in love with someone.]

[ _Hm... does he look like that? ^.^_ ]

Sho sighed.

[Don't play dumb, Aiba, I know that you know something...]

[ _You're no fun today, Sho-chan... :( Well, yes, there probably is someone he likes._ ]

[Probably? Come on...]

[ _OK, certainly._ ]

Sho sighed. It wasn't as if he was surprised now, no, he just felt affirmed, but he didn't expect it to be so hard to process. Now on to the details. All or nothing...

[Tell me who it is.]

[ _I can't, I promised Nino not to tell anybody_ ] was Aiba's reply. Damned.

[Does Jun know?!]

[ _Jun counts as part of me, it can't be helped!_ ]

[Then tell Jun to tell me!]

[ _Rejected! He can't tell anybody either._ ]

[Aiba-logic, huh? D: Well, even if you won't tell me, I think I do have a suspicion...] Sho typed.

Maybe, with this tactic, he could trick his friend in telling him what he wanted to know... even if this was quite low of Sho, and he knew it. "Sorry, Aiba-chan," he murmured, before he hit the send button.

This time it took Aiba a bit longer to reply. He was probably discussing the matter with his boyfriend or they just... Sho didn't want to think any further and shook his head firmly before he read Aiba's reply.

[ _Oh, is that so? Who do you think it is?_ ]

Damned, his plan backfired, Sho thought. But if Aiba was for playing games, he could do the same!

[I'm not gonna tell you.]

[ _You're taking revenge... very mature, Sho-chan, very mature..._ ] Aiba texted back.

OK, fine, so Aiba wasn't about to fall for Sho's trap, he got it. The man looked at his phone, frustrated, and not knowing how to reply to his friend without appearing any more childish than he already did. But then, he could see that Aiba was still typing, so he decided to wait.

[ _So... if you think you know who that person is, what do you think about the whole thing?_ ]

Sho stared at the message, frowning. Well, if he was honest to himself, and allowed his thoughts to run wild, imagining Nino going and to tell Ohno that he liked him, and Ohno telling Nino that he liked him back, when he saw them hugging before his inner eye, no, even _kissing_ each other, and eventually even hallucinated about wedding bells at the back of his head... Sho was ready to explode.

[I don't like it!]

Whoops, did he just send that?

[ _Why?_ ] Aiba asked.

[Nevermind...] Sho quickly texted, blushing. No, he wasn't ready yet to tell Aiba about his feelings towards Nino. This would make things far too complicated. [I'm going to sleep. Sorry for disturbing during your bath. Good night to you and Jun.]

He put away his cell phone, but when it vibrated once again, he couldn't ignore it.

[ _Sho, don't be like this, spit it out, you know you can talk to me about anything!_ ]

[You mean to you and Jun, since you tell _him_ everything, but not me...]

[ _Oh come on, Sho, don't be mean... ;_;_ ]

Great, now Sho even felt guilty. But still, he didn't want to share his secret. However, at least he wanted not to be impolite and so he sent a last reply, before he put away his phone for real.

[Sorry, Aiba-chan and thank you. Next time. Good night!]

[ _Good night, Sho-chan_ ]

*

A few minutes before midnight, Sho was still lying awake in bed when he heard his apartment door being opened and Nino finally returned. The man toyed with the thought of getting up and greeting the other, but for some reason, he didn't want to face him right now. Was it stupid?

Sho cringed, when he heard Nino – who was obviously slightly drunk – crashing against some furniture and cursing loudly. Eventually, he got up and left his room, worried that his friend was actually hurt. He switched on the lights in the living room, which Nino had obviously forgotten and no wonder that he ran into something, just to find his friend sitting on the floor and holding his shin in pain.

"Nino, are you alright?!" Sho asked worried, as he dashed over to Nino and knelt beside his friend.

"Oh, ah, Sho-chan," Nino replied, giggling, even if he had tears in his eyes. "I'm home! Just... a 'lil drunk... and your table attacked me..."

"Are you OK?" the other man wanted to confirm again as he helped Nino up and guided him towards the couch where they sat next to each other.

"It hurts...," Nino whined, pouting.

"Let me have a look," Sho demanded and pushed Nino's trousers up to inspect his hurt leg, before the other even could protest. "It's not bleeding, thankfully. Shall I bring you some ice to cool it? And some water to drink? It will help you to sober up."

"Hmmm," the other only moved his head while humming. Sho interpreted it as a nod but when he wanted to get up, Nino suddenly turned to face him with a wide grin and threw his arms around him to hug him tightly.

"Nino?" Sho asked, shocked, ready to push the other away.

However, Nino was clingly and when he breathed in the hint of Nino's unique scent, he couldn't help but stop and allow his arms to hug his friend in return. For a moment, they stayed like this, Sho's heart beating like crazy and Nino not moving an inch. Sho almost thought that the other man had fallen asleep in his arms, when the other man took a deep breath and started bubbling again.

"Sho-chan feels so warm... sooo nice," he said in a low voice, slightly cracking.

Sho blushed. "Did... did you have fun with Ohno?" he asked, trying to sound casually, as he finally untangled himself from Nino's embrace and leaned his friend against the backrest of the couch.

"Uh-huh, so much fun!" Nino smiled.

"Good to hear," Sho replied, trying to mute the jealous voice inside his head that wanted to tell Nino that he could also have fun here with him! Instead, he stood up. "I'll be right back with your water..."

"Haaah~ You're so nice, Sho-chan," Nino sighed, his eyes already half-closed and a silly but cute smile adorning his face. "That'sss why I like you s-so much."

Sho's heart stopped beating for a moment, as he looked at Nino, half-lying on the couch, and tried to process the man's words. He _liked_ him. Well, obviously, he meant that he liked him as a _friend_ , that's it, Sho reminded himself. Only his wishful thinking could make him hope otherwise. He chuckled nervously, as he tried to make Nino lie down properly and tucked him under his blanket, before he went into the kitchen.

When he came back to the living room, Nino was already passed out, still in his clothes – although it looked like he tried to take off his pullover – and was breathing heavily from sleep. Sho smiled at that sight and put the glass of water and a small bowl with a plastic bag filled with ice cubes down on the coffee table. He bent down and carefully pulled off Nino's glasses before he freed him from his pullover and trousers, then he tucked him in carefully.

"Ssso nice," Nino murmured in his sleep as he turned his face with a smile, but he didn't wake up.

Sho sighed. Nice was obviously not enough. But well, it was better that way, he thought, slightly bitter, before he went back to bed. They were better off as friends, anyway.

*

The next few days, Nino seemed to be a bit down in Sho's presence, even if he tried to hide it. Sho could only assume that things between Nino and Ohno were not exactly progressing the way the young man would like them to, but no matter how often he tried to get back to the _love_ topic, Nino didn't even show any interest in talking to Sho about that again. In the end, Sho just accepted it as the way it was.

The week passed and nothing special happened, if you didn't count Nino's fabulous cooking for dinner. Besides making sure that Sho's gluttonous tongue was satisfied by all the delicious food he was making, Nino didn't do anything like sneaking into Sho's bed at night, or disturbing him when he was in the bathroom anymore, nor did he force him to play games with him or anything else.

This went so far that Sho started wondering if he did something wrong, to make the other man feel uncomfortable or sad... but he just couldn't come up with an idea as to what might have triggered this behaviour.

Besides that, Aiba had tried to talk to Sho once more about why Sho didn't like the situation of Nino having a crush on someone, but Sho came to the conclusion that first, it wasn't his and Aiba's right to talk about something like Nino's feelings behind the young man's back and second, he just didn't want to confront himself with the thought of Nino liking Ohno. That was a simple self-defence mechanism and nothing more.

Like always, the five friends met on Friday for dining out, but with Sho praising Nino's cooking and Aiba making lots of jokes about how they should spend Friday evenings with Nino's home-made cooking rather than eating expensive yakiniku over and over. Sho tried to find any hints in Nino and Ohno's behaviour that might show if their status have changed in any way. However, they were just their usual selves around each other, Nino even dropped his gloomy mood for a few hours, and Ohno was as carefree as always.

Nino and Sho went home pretty early, both not really in the mood to get drunk and instead of singing drunken songs on their way home to Sho's apartment, Nino started thinking out loud about what he wanted to cook on the weekend. They ended with having Sho take notes for a shopping list that they would use the next day when they would go to a large supermarket in the area, to get all the ingredients they needed.

*

Nino and Sho got up early and after a quick breakfast and a cup of coffee, they headed to the largest supermarket in the neighbourhood, which had a much bigger selection than the conbini around the corner of Sho's apartment. 

They just grabbed two shopping baskets and started to fill them according to Sho's shopping list, when Sho spotted a familiar face ahead of them, bowing over some fresh fruits, carefully inspecting them before choosing the two best looking punnets of strawberries.

"Ah," Sho pointed out. "There's Ohno..."

"Oh-chan, hi!" Nino yelled towards their friend immediately, a happy smile on his face. As soon as Sho saw this, he almost regretted on having said something about Ohno.

The other man looked up in surprise and then waved at his friends to greet them.

"Nino, come here!" Ohno then said, locking eyes with the younger man. "Quick!"

"Ah, excuse me for a moment, Sho-chan," Nino said with an apologetic smile.

And off he ran towards Ohno, who quickly glanced towards Sho before he threw his arm around Nino's shoulders, and pulled the young man a bit closer, whispering something into his ear. Nino blushed cutely and Sho would have given a lot just to know what Ohno told Nino right there. Again, he felt this stab in his heart. He felt left out. He felt jealous. Damned. Was he really losing control over himself?

Sho tried his best to ignore those doubts and feelings inside his chest and focused on his shopping list again, to keep his mind busy. Checking the ingredients they needed, he already toying with the thought of heading towards the opposite end of the supermarket, just not to witness Nino and Ohno together anymore, but then Nino came back to him, Ohno in tow. The man flashed Sho a smile, friendly as always.

"Hey, Sho-kun, shopping for dinner?"

"Hm, yeah…," Sho replied, only nodding shortly towards the other and averting his look again, pretending to be busy with his list, which he was able to recite backwards already.

"Oh-chan's mom is going to make a strawberry cake!" Nino threw in a piece of information that Sho couldn't care less about at the moment.

"Matsujun recently suggested a really good fried rice recipe," Ohno continued casually. "I can forward the e-mail if you want."

"Sure, thank you," Sho nodded.

"Do you want some strawberry cake too, Sho-chan?" Nino asked, but Sho was deep in his own thoughts, still wondering what Nino and Ohno had been talking about and barely realized that the other had asked him a question.

"Done in a second," Ohno said, already reaching for his cell phone in his pocket, before he smiled at his friends and turned on his heels. "See you around, guys!"

"See you," Nino replied, while Sho just stared after him.

Once their friend was out of sight, he and Sho finally continued with their shopping, proceeding to the other sections of the supermarket, once they had filled their baskets with all the vegetables they needed.

"So… you and Ohno?" Sho suddenly asked, not daring to look at Nino.

"Hm?" the other man just hummed a bit confused. "What about us?" he asked, facing Sho when he didn't reply.

Yeah, what about them? Sho wondered... he couldn't seriously ask Nino how things were going, he just couldn't. He might have offered his help to Nino once, to give some advice, but in the end, wouldn't it feel too strange?

"Ah, nothing… forget it..."

After glancing at Sho sceptically but not receiving any further reply, Nino changed the topic. "So what about the strawberry cake?"

"Strawberry cake?" Right, Nino had mentioned that Ohno's mother was going to make some...

"You like strawberry cake too, right?"

For some reason, Sho felt annoyed. Why was Nino suddenly obsessed with strawberry cake, just because Ohno told him that his mother would make some? It wasn't like Nino was a sweet tooth, he barely craved for stuff like cake or other sweet desserts. So why now?

"We can try make some by ourselves too!"

"Nino, no," Sho cut his friend, stopping abruptly. "I don't care about strawberry cake for now, OK?"

Nino stopped about two steps later, slowly turning to face Sho. "Oh... OK..."

Judging from his friend's shocked face, maybe Sho was a bit louder than he expected. The man sighed.

"Sorry, if you want some, sure you can make some or we buy some at the bakery or...," he said, before getting distracted by the vibration of his phone in his pocket. He quickly pulled it out to check. "Ah look, there it is. He can be surprisingly fast, right?" Sho said, showing Nino the e-mail with the recipe Ohno promised to forward them. "You wanna try it?"

"Uhm, sure," Nino nodded, but still he gave Sho a wondering look that the other decided to ignore, acting as if nothing happened.

"Good, so here are the things we need…," Sho started to read out the list of ingredients, moving away already with his shopping basket, trying to occupy his mind with other thoughts than Nino blushing upon Ohno's hug.

*

In the end, they decided to buy some strawberry cake at the bakery nearby and after lunch, they were sitting together at Sho's dining table, eating it. Nino had divided his own slice in half, to give it to Sho, since he didn't need that much sweet cake, and of course, Sho accepted it thankfully. After all, Nino was right. Sho liked strawberry cake. A lot.

However, Sho couldn't ignore the slightly bitter aftertaste that the memory of seeing Nino and Ohno together had left. Would it be like this forever now? Would it become worse and worse until it was unbearable for him to watch them? But it wasn't _him_ who was important in this case, but Nino's happiness, right? Thus, Sho decided to give this topic one more try. Maybe they could progress with it, well, at least Nino.

"Nino…," Sho started when he had finished his last piece of cake. "You have someone you like, don't you?"

The question caught Nino off guard, who blushed and froze immediately in his movement of lifting his tea cup to his lips, but he got hold of himself again, quickly. He cleared his throat and tilted his head.

"Well, I guess there is someone like that, yes... What about you?"

Sho didn't expect him to ask back, but replied nonetheless, trying to ignore how fast his heart was beating now. He had to pull this through now or it would hang in the air between them forever. "Hm… probably. How's it going… with that person?"

"I'm not sure if he's interested in me," Nino chuckled, his look turning sad.

Sho's heart cringed at the sight. Would Nino's love story be over before it even began? Did he already talk to Ohno maybe, testing the water? Sho could relate to what Nino might feeling right now. The insecurity if someone liked you back, the doubts that came with whether and how much you should tell the other person about your feelings, or not... even rejection was a feeling that Sho knew just too well, but maybe, it wasn't too late for Nino yet.

"Did you tell him that you like him?" Sho asked, carefully.

Nino shook his head, furiously. "No, not directly! It's impossible… That's too embarrassing... To be honest, I hoped he'd get the hints… but then, maybe it's better he doesn't."

Sho frowned. "You really like him?"

"Hm."

"May I ask who that person is?" Sho gave it a shot, but when Nino blushed even deeper, he pulled back immediately. "Sorry, maybe this is too private, you don't have to tell me," after all, Sho already know that this was a talk about Ohno, but he didn't need to tell Nino that he knew. He tried another way around. "Are you friends?"

Nino nodded. So he was right after all. This confirmed it.

"I see," Sho sighed before he continued in a serious tone. "Then, you have to choose whether to make a move or keep things like they are in order not to risk your friendship, right?"

"Risk our friendship...," Nino repeated thoughtfully, his eyes searching for Sho's. There was insecurity in them, no, it almost looked like fear.

"You have to choose carefully. Things can go well... but there are also cases in which everything is lost if it doesn't."

"Is that what happened to you, Sho-chan?" Nino asked after a few seconds of silence. "Did you risk too much?"

Sho tried to smile at the memory of his past relationship. It wasn't like he was still clinging to it, he and Okada broke up mutually, but things were never the same after that and if there was something Sho regretted, than it was that not only their relationship, but also their friendship was over the moment they said good-bye.

"Let's say, I learned from my mistakes. And I don't want you to experience the same," Sho said in a soft voice.

He looked at Nino, who had lowered his look, frowned and slightly biting his lip until he looked up at Sho, locking eyes, determined.

"And what...," he started. "I mean, let's assume what if I want to take the risk nonetheless? What should I do? Especially if I can't _tell_ him my feelings..."

Sho gulped. If Nino was serious, then he should try to give him some helpful advice, but was he good at such stuff? "Well, sometimes men are pretty blind towards hints, don't you think so? So, if you can't _tell_ him,… _show_ him!"

"How?" Nino frowned.

"Some nice gestures maybe?"

Surprisingly, Nino sighed in frustration. "What if I tried that already but he keeps on misunderstanding?"

Sho knitted his eyebrows. Well, he could imagine that Ohno wasn't the quickest on catching onto subtleness, but if Nino already showed some effort and nothing worked, it was probably not aggressive enough. Then, if Nino was really ready to take a risk, Sho could only think of one thing.

"Then what about a kiss? Nobody can misunderstand a kiss, right?"

He couldn't believe that he just advised Nino to kiss Ohno. He could shoot himself, at this very moment. This was romance suicide. But well, _he_ wasn't willing to take any risk, so it was his own fault if he lost without even fighting.

Nino stared at him with big eyes and a deep red face, as if Sho just had read him the revelation.

"I – I will try and think if I should consider this option...," the young man murmured before hiding behind his tea cup.

And with that, the topic was concluded. For the rest of the weekend, Nino glanced at Sho multiple times, shyly, probably wanting to ask him for more detailed advice but too shy for it. Sho decided to ignore it. Who was he to be giving Nino _kissing_ advice?! Everything had its limits and from now on, it was Nino's fight.

*

The atmosphere between Sho and Nino became even stranger than ever since the time they moved in together temporarily, and Sho wondered, if he had done the right thing. More than that, as he expected, the situation became more and more unbearable for him and being around Nino became harder every day. Sho didn't dare to voice the question, but he was wondering when the renovation works in Nino's apartment would be over, so that he and Nino would finally be able to return to their normal lives.

They almost didn't see each other between Tuesday and Friday evening, since Nino was extremely busy at work, coming back home only late at night on Tuesday as well as Wednesday and even had to pull an all-nighter at work with his colleagues on Thursday. With this, he and Sho only really met again on Friday at their usual after-work-week drinking and eating session with Aiba, Jun and Ohno at their usual yakiniku place. To his surprise, Sho's happiness on seeing his friend again, outweighted the bitterness from his one-sided crush, and so he was all smiles and tried to make the best out of their evening,

After two beers, Nino seemed so tired that he almost fell asleep while eating, only being kept awake by Sho and Ohno's poking and tickling from both sides, as he was placed in between the two of them, like always. The next beer though, finally pushed the last nail into Nino's coffin of tiredness, making him pass out on the table almost immediately after he took the last sip.

"Being tired and alcohol never mix well, after all...," Ohno spoke some wise words, before he himself dozed off, keeping the remaining three man laughing gently upon their friend's words.

"So Sho, how are things going with Nino in the apartment after two weeks now?" Aiba finally asked as he poured his friend another glass of beer.

Sho tilted his head as he took another sip of his drink, searching for an appropriate reply.

"It's a bit strange...," he finally said, making Aiba as well as Jun lift their eyebrows in surprise. "I mean... he's great. He's helping in the household chores as much as he can – to be honest, my apartment has never been that clean before," Sho chuckled. "And I will miss his cooking so much, when he goes back to his house..."

"...But?" Aiba voiced the word that was hanging in the atmosphere.

"But it's not easy to be with him," Sho sighed, looking at Nino with a sad smile. "Ah, no, it's not his fault, it's me, you see? It's a bit complicated…"

Aiba frowned even more, but when Jun patted his boyfriend's arm, Aiba refrained from asking any further questions. The three men continued to finish the remaining food and then, soon, called it a day. Aiba and Jun took the job over to bring Ohno home, while they entrusted Sho with Nino. Well, it made sense, since they were still living together, after all, and so, Sho was carrying Nino home, piggyback-style. It reminded him of that evening some years ago, where he did the same and tried to remember his feelings from that time. He already had a crush on his friend back then, just a tiny little crush, but still... but now, things were different. Now, even though he knew that he would not have a chance with Nino if he even _tried_ , it was much worse. His heart was ready to explode. He wanted to cry.

Back home, he carefully placed Nino on the couch, and again, undressed him a bit to make it more comfortable for him to sleep.

"You should try not to get drunk so often," Sho murmured while he was taking care of Nino.

To his surprise, Nino seemed to wake up – or sleep talk – at least, he moved his lips and his eyes fluttered as he murmured something that Sho couldn't understand. He leaned forward, closer to Nino's ear, when suddenly, Nino reached his hand into the nape of Sho's neck and held him close, his hand feeling heavy. Sho froze, his heart starting to beat like a drum. Was he asleep? Was he awake?

"A kiss?" Nino whispered, seemingly random, causing Sho to frown. "Like this?"

And then, even before Sho could stop the other, Nino pulled Sho slightly closer, just enough so that their lips could meet for a second.

The kiss was short but oh-so-soft, it felt like a taste of heaven…

But it was wrong.

Immediately, Sho sat up back straight, his hand pressed against his lips, his heart beating as fast as even possible, and he felt his cheeks burning.

"Wha-what are you doing, Nino?!" he asked, confused, staring at his friend, whose eyes were closed again.

"Practise...," he murmured, before being overwhelmed by tiredness again.

Of course, Sho immediately understood what Nino was referring to. Their talk, his _tip_ that Nino should kiss the person he liked if he couldn't tell him with words... but did he really need to _practise_ with Sho?!

"I am _not_ -" your test object, Sho wanted to say, but he couldn't even finish his sentence, his voice refusing to work. He was close to tears. "Don't make it a habit of making me taking care of you when you're drunk... it's the second time now in two weeks...," Sho mumbled, after Nino was properly bedded on the couch and he rushed to get ready for bed himself.

*

"I'm going to meet Oh-chan in the afternoon," Nino started the breakfast talk the next morning, as he handed Sho a cup of freshly brewed coffee.

"Hm," Sho simply gave back. He couldn't feel even worse about what he just heard .

"I'll be back in the evening at the latest… wanna watch another movie?" Nino suggested, sitting down opposite to Sho and putting down their breakfast plates filled with ham and eggs.

He sounded cheerful, but also slightly nervous, Sho couldn't help but notice. Well, if Nino was about to finally put his _practise_ from last night into action, then yeah, he could imagine that his friend was nervous about it. So in just a few hours, Nino would kiss Ohno, and if Ohno wasn't the most stupid man in the world, he would accept Nino's confession and kiss him back, and then everyone would be happy. Well, everyone but Sho.

Still, Sho wasn't even sure what made his mood worse. The prospective of Nino having a date with Ohno in the afternoon, or the fact that Nino had practised kissing with _him_ ; but since the young man had been drunk past night, it would be of no use to bring up the subject now. He probably wouldn't even remember properly, or he might have apologized to Sho already, the man assumed.

"Sho?" Nino pulled his friend out of his thoughts. "Are you OK?"

"Ah, yeah, sure," Sho murmured, hoping that Nino wouldn't dig deeper.

"So... movie-date tonight?" Nino offered with a shy smile.

Sho sighed. Did the other really need to rub salt into his wound and call it a _date_? This was so inappropriate that it hurt...

"Hm, sure," the man simply replied, trying to sound happy.

"You don't seem well, did something happen?" Nino asked, concerned, but Sho just brushed it off, faking a smile and murmuring something about headaches.

*

Sho had no idea which movie he and Nino should watch this time, and so he decided to take a stroll to the video rental store and see if something from the new releases would catch his interest.

"So, did you progress with _him_?" Sho could suddenly hear a voice behind him.

He whirled around, facing his acquaintance. "Ken-kun..."

"You don't look as happy as the last time we met, when you brought back the other movie," the store's clerk dared to point out and Sho couldn't help but chuckle, feeling caught.

"It's a bit complicated."

"Because of him or because of you?" Ken asked, arching an eyebrow.

Sho wondered. "Both?"

"If you have some time to spare, let's go for a drink, I'm about to take my break. We can talk, if you want," the man offered with a friendly smile.

Sho simply nodded, returning the smile, and then, just before they left to head over to the café at the other side of the street, Ken showed him a DVD box of a 90's – early 2000's American sitcom called "Friends", suggesting that he could watch this if he was in the mood for something funny and light but smart and slightly romantic, in between. Sho shrugged and decided that since he couldn't decide on a movie anyway, he and Nino could try watching a couple of episodes of this show.

*

"He likes someone else," Sho explained the situation in short, when he and Ken sat at the café table with two large iced coffees in front of them.

"Hm...," Ken took a sip. "That's too bad... so he's taken?"

"Well, not yet, they are not in a relationship yet," Sho replied.

"Then you still have a chance," the other man smirked, but Sho quickly shook his head.

"No, no, I don't."

Ken frowned. "You didn't tell him about your feelings, did you?"

He hit the bull's eyes. Sho took a slurp from his iced coffee.

"Why not?" Ken asked, curiously. "If you don't tell him, then, of course, you don't have a chance."

"But I can't risk our friendship," Sho murmured.

"You think you'd lose him as a friend?"

Sho sighed deeply. Maybe, now it was the time to tell Ken a bit more about himself, he thought, or the other man would nag him about this until the end of time.

"I had a boyfriend, years ago," he started. "We went to the same college, met on the campus and got along immediately. He was a bit older than I was and I admired him for so many things... we became really good friends, but then... we learned that our feelings for each other were much deeper and we decided to give it a try."

Ken didn't interrupt Sho, and just kept looking at him in silence, while Sho took another sip from his coffee.

"It was nice, in the beginning," Sho continued. "It was great, it was exciting and I even thought that's it, this will be my future, and I was happy about it, but he graduated from college, started his job, and soon things became difficult."

"What happened?" Ken asked, carefully.

"One year later, he was transferred overseas just when I started the internship in my current company."

"So it turned into a long-distance relationship?"

"We tried," Sho sighed. "But it wasn't easy. I was sick of it, but I wasn't willing to drop out from my training and follow him, and so we fought a lot. He didn't come back as often as he promised, either. Then one day, when he spent his holidays with me, I found out that he had someone else, overseas. Another guy. He betrayed me."

Ken frowned, his look turning sad, and just when he wanted to say something to Sho, the other flashed him a smile.

"You don't need to feel pity for me, don't worry. His cheating wasn't the only problem in our relationship. It was just the result of many things that didn't work out, so in the end, we accepted our defeat and broke up."

"That must have been hard," Ken murmured.

Sho smiled at him. "I could have lived with it if we just stopped being a couple, but I regretted even more that our bond of trust was so damaged that we couldn't rebuild our friendship."

"But you can't assume that things would become the same again..."

"No, surely not, but this experience showed me that you can never tell if friendship can survive a relationship. If possible, I don't want to risk it again, in any way," Sho said, seriously.

"I understand your worries, but I think, you're missing something important," Ken said, after a few seconds of silence, making Sho raise his eyebrows at him. "There can be no romantic relationship without friendship. So either way, no matter if you're friends before coming together or if you build your friendship when in a relationship, it will always be at risk and even if there is no romance involved, if you cannot be honest in your friendship, that could be risky too."

Sho didn't know what to say about that, but it definitely made him think.

*

To be honest, Sho wasn't even surprised when in the early evening, his cell phone rang and it was Nino calling him. A small voice at the back of Sho's head had already told him that it was most likely, Nino was about to confess his feelings to Ohno and things would go well, Nino wouldn't really have a reason to come back in the evening to spend the time on the couch watching TV with Sho, if he could spend his time with his newly-gained boyfriend. Thus, Sho already expected the other man to tell him that he shouldn't wait for him for dinner. But to his surprise, when he took the call, Nino didn't say anything like that.

_"Sho...,"_ Nino started, his voice sounding somewhat strange and far more serious than Sho expected.

"Nino, where are you?" the man asked immediately, sensing that something was wrong.

_"I'm outside... on the playground at the corner of the park, you know...,"_ the other man tried to describe the place, but Sho could already imagine the said playground of his neighbourhood in his mind. _"Could you… come here and pick me up, maybe?"_

Sho frowned, worried. His bad feeling increased. "Did something happen? Are you OK?"

_"Everything's fine, thank you,"_ Nino replied. _"I just would like to talk to you here..."_

"Give me five minutes, and I'll be there," Sho said, determined, before he ended the call and rushed to the entrance area of his apartment to change into his sneakers and grab his keys from the shoe cabinet.

Something was wrong. Something was definitely wrong. Nino sounded strange on the phone. Did things with Ohno turn out the wrong way? Wouldn't the fresh couple prefer spending their evening together if everything was fine? And then, why didn't Nino just return to Sho's apartment as the initial plan? Sho was confused and so, he hurried even faster, reaching the playground just a few minutes later.

He immediately spotted Nino sitting on one of the benches at the edge of the playground, his elbows supported on his knees as he sat there, hunkering over and with a hanging head. Sho dashed forward until he reached him and stopped just in front of him. When Nino looked up to meet Sho's gaze, the younger man immediately averted his eyes again, seemingly nervous. The evening sun was about to set already and the playground was becoming emptier with each minute, as some parents called their children to get ready to head home for dinner, taking them by their tiny hands and went home, laughing happily.

Sho sat down next to his friend, not saying a word, wanting to give Nino the time he needed until he was ready to talk. He noticed that the other man was a little tipsy. Not bad, just a little bit, but he knew it. Well, it was weekend, and Nino was free to do and drink whatever he wanted, but at this early hour, and the fact that Nino wasn't spending his evening with Ohno, Sho could just assume that it wasn't really a good sign. Did Ohno dump him? Was he stupid?!

Suddenly, Sho felt sad for Nino and angry towards Ohno, however, he still didn't dare to ask Nino how things turned out. Even though he would wish for Nino's happiness, he wasn't sure if he really wanted to know. Yes, he could be as selfish as that. When Nino still didn't show any signs of wanting to talk to the other man, Sho couldn't keep quiet any longer.

"Nino, why did you drink again?" he asked, carefully, turning to face his friend.

Nino tilted his head. "I didn't drink _that_ much..."

Sho frowned. "Is everything OK?"

Nino signed deeply and then lifted his hand to rub his neck. He chuckled. "I wanted to become braver…"

"And you thought alcohol would help you?" Sho arched an eyebrow.

Nino looked at him and didn't respond for a moment, before he averted his eyes again and said, "I was desperate."

So, Nino tried to encourage himself for his confession to Ohno with alcohol. That sounded like a very bad idea, but like one that desperate people would come up with, right?

After another pause, Sho simply asked. "Did it help?"

"I don't know…"

"Let's go back to my apartment and eat some dinner," the other man then suggested, touching Nino's arm to make him look at him again. "Come on!"

Sho stood up, tucked his hands in his pockets and smiled at Nino as best as he could. If his friend had a bad day, he would do everything to create at least a good evening together with him. But Nino didn't move. Instead, he looked at Sho, troubled, and took a deep breath, before he spoke up again.

"Sho... Why are you always so nice to me?"

"What do you mean?" the older man wondered.

"Although I'm an idiot," Nino continued. "And troublesome... I forced myself into your apartment... you have to take care of me when I'm drunk..."

"Are you really worrying about something like that now?" Sho chuckled.

If he said that their friendship was the only reason, he wouldn't be telling the whole truth. It wasn't the only reason. But how could he make use of Nino's devastated mood to tell him about his feelings? Even if after the conversation with Ken, Sho had decided that if there would ever be a chance in the future, he would tell Nino the truth, just that this wasn't the right moment and so, Sho would go with the safe option this time.

"Because you're my precious friend," he said.

Then, everything was too fast for him to even grasp what happened. Suddenly, Nino jumped up from the bench and his look, from being sad and insecure, changed to a more determined one. He grabbed Sho's arms, who was looking at him, startled, and then, Nino leant forward, to press his lips against Sho's, firmly.

For a small moment, Sho's heart stopped beating and in that moment he slightly parted his lips to grasp some air, which Nino used to his advantage and started deepening the kiss, invading Sho's mouth. It felt like heaven. Like everything Sho didn't dare to dream about for the past few years, too scared to confront himself with his feelings and desires. The older man allowed a small moan to escape and was about to give in, when his brain pulled him back to reality and he realized that it was just too good to be true, that Nino was actually kissing him.

Well yes, technically, he was, but Sho knew with his heart and mind that Nino must be with his crush Ohno, and no one else. Maybe, he felt tired. Maybe, he felt rejected. Maybe, he was just searching for someone to fill the loneliness in his heart, but Sho knew that in his current state, that person couldn't be him. He liked Nino. More than he ever wanted to admit that to anyone in the world, but he could not. And if he now allowed Nino to use him as a substitute, it would hurt Sho, more than he would be able to take.

So he broke the kiss, even if he missed the warmth of Nino's mouth immediately, and slightly pushed the other man away.

"Sho...," Nino whispered, almost inaudible.

"What… what are you doing?" Sho asked, seriously, but didn't dare to look into Nino's eyes.

"Isn't it obvious?" Nino asked, his voice slightly cracking. "I-I'm kissing you…"

"Nino, we can't do this," Sho hissed, frowning in despair. His heart was beating like crazy, but this time, the excitement wasn't pleasant, it was more painful in nature.

"Why not?" Nino asked with a fainting voice.

Sho took a deep breath. He was still holding Nino at a distance. He could feel his hands slightly shaking. "Because… _friends_ don't _kiss_ , this is not right, you see?"

"But -," the younger man wanted to protest, but Sho didn't let him finish.

"I can't kiss you, we can't do this, you're drunk, we… it's not right!" Sho concluded, in a loud voice, he was almost yelling now.

When Nino didn't reply and Sho finally found the courage to look up and meet Nino's gaze, the younger man's eyes had turned dark.

"OK, I get it," he said, voicelessly. "You don't _want_ to kiss me."

Sho wanted to yell that it was _Nino_ who didn't want to kiss _him_ and that he should stop before Sho started to cry, but of course, he didn't say that. Instead, he swallowed the bitter words and tried to find something reasonable to say.

"I-I just _can't_ , OK?" he tried to sound as determined as he could. "We are friends and as much as I want to support you, _this_ is going too far, you see?"

Nino took a step backwards and Sho's hands finally slipped down from Nino's arms. The younger had lowered his look, his eyes were now hidden behind his black bangs. The evening sun, that was almost gone now, set everything into a warm orange light. A warmth that didn't reach either Sho or Nino at that very moment. Then, Nino just nodded, slightly.

"I get it. I'm sorry. Just... forget it," he said, turned on his heel and starting to walk away.

Sho frowned. "Wait, where are you going?"

"I just need to stretch my legs a little bit," the younger man replied without turning around.

"You're drunk, you should come home with me -," Sho suggested, but Nino stayed firm.

"I'm fine!"

He didn't say more, and Sho did not either, only watched his friend storm away, unable to move and follow him. Nino had made it clear that he needed some space now. Probably, to cool his head and realize that he just did something unnecessary. Something disrespectful against Ohno, himself, and Sho. And when he realized it, he'd come back and he and Sho would laugh it off, even if Sho knew that he would never feel the same next to Nino. Not after the kiss. Not after he found out _how_ deep his feelings for the younger man were. But he wouldn't risk their friendship, at any cost.

When Nino was out of sight, Sho's knees gave in and he sank to the ground. He just couldn't take the tension any longer, his body stopped functioning for a moment. His heart cringed. Nino _would_ come back, right?

The sun was now gone, and the slowly spreading darkness of the night was invading Sho's heart.

TBC


	3. Part 3

Sho worried for the whole evening, about how he should face Nino once he would come back to the apartment, which turned out to be unnecessary. He realized that the real problem was, Nino _did not_ come back home, at least not at a reasonable time. Midnight approached and Sho became more and more nervous, fearing that something might have happened to the young man. After all, he had been tipsy. And in a bad mood. That could be a dangerous combination.

Sho tried to call the other, but Nino didn't pick up his phone, nor did he reply to any messages Sho sent to him. He even went out searching for Nino in the neighbourhood. Maybe he had returned to the playground, or he was in a nearby izakaya, although at this time of the day all of the places that Sho knew should have closed already. And indeed, Sho couldn't find his friend, no matter where he was searching.

Slightly desperate, he forced his brain to think. If Nino didn't want to come back home and if he wasn't anywhere nearby, where could he be?

Well, knowing Nino, there weren't too many choices. Sho grabbed his cell phone.

[Is Nino at your place?] he typed on his phone, before sending the same message to Aiba as well as Ohno.

[ _No, he's not. Why?_ ] Aiba texted back almost immediately, sending a cute sticker with question marks popping out its head after it. [ _Did something happen?_ ]

[We had some kind of dispute…] Sho replied, not wanting to tell Aiba about – he shook his blushing head - the _kiss_. That would make things too complicated for the moment.

[ _Sho, what did you do to him?!_ ]

[What makes you think that _I_ did something to _him_?!]

[ _Well, then did he do something to you?!_ ]

Well, what about _"Yes!"_? He kissed him, using him as a substitute for his crush and turned Sho's world upside down! But Sho still hesitated to tell anybody about his dilemma.

[Sorry, I can't tell you the details…]

[ _Anyway, no, he's not at our place or I would have sent him back to you already_ ]

Sho sighed before he sent another line. [He was a bit drunk, I just hope nothing happened to him.]

It took Aiba a bit longer this time to reply, he was probably already in bed and half asleep, Sho thought, he should have considered that…

[ _Maybe he just needs some time. He'll be fine, he's an adult, don't worry._ ]

An adult that created quite a bit of trouble, Sho thought, sighing deeply.

[But if he's not with you, where else could he be?] 

Even if Sho had to ask the other too, just to make sure, he doubted that Nino would have gone to Ohno for many reasons, and tried to think if the young man ever mentioned any other friend, he remembered a colleague named Toma, but had no idea how to contact that man, he didn't even know his full name…

[Do you think he went home to his family?]

[ _Possible. Just go to bed, Sho, maybe he's asleep already and will contact you tomorrow. Good night._ ]

Sho lowered his shoulders and after trying to call Nino for a last time – again, unsuccessfully, of course – he decided to listen to Aiba and returned home.

Maybe... just maybe, Nino came back home in the meantime? Sho's steps sped up at that thought, bringing him back as fast as possible. He pushed open his apartment door, calling out Nino's name, but the apartment remained silent.

Nino wasn't in the living room, nor in the kitchen or the bath. He hadn't come home. Desperately, Sho slumped onto the couch in the living room, reaching for one of the pillows – the one that Nino used for sleeping for the past two weeks. Sho took a deep breath. It even smelled of Nino...

The man checked his cell phone once more, typed one last message to Nino, that he was waiting for him back home, and checked his messages and chat apps one last time, just in case. He wasn't surprised that there were no traces of Nino, and that Ohno didn't reply or read his message.

Sighing, Sho buried his head in Nino's pillow. The typical scent of the young man that covered the pillow case was nice, so nice... Sho missed him. Yeah, even if it's just a few hours ago that they saw each other, Sho missed Nino already. And the thought of Nino not coming back scared him. Maybe he shouldn't have pushed him away, Sho wondered, remembering the kiss from before, again. His heart continued to beat faster whenever he thought about that moment, and yes, it was pretty much impossible, _not_ to think about it. But didn't he do the right thing?

The man started drowning, not only in the pleasant scent of the pillow he was still embracing, but also in his thoughts. He closed his eyes, to try and rest, just for a moment, maybe to come up with another idea where Nino could be, but the excitement of the day took its toll and as soon as Sho breathed in Nino's scent once more, his mind drifted away and he fell asleep, sitting there, his head fallen to one side, his arms, still clenching the pillow.

*

Sho woke up the next morning, lying on the couch instead of his bed, still dressed and hugging the pillow that smelled like Nino. When he realized that he had fallen asleep, Sho's eyes snapped open and he sat up on the couch immediately. He turned his head, saying Nino's name, first in a whisper, then louder, almost yelling.

No reply.

He snatched his cell phone which had slipped from his pocket onto the floor, and immediately checked it for any signs of life from Nino. But he only found a message by Ohno from about an hour ago, telling him that Nino wasn't at his place and asking if something happened.

Sho decided to give it one more try, calling Nino, but again, he didn't pick up his phone, although it was around 9 already. By this time, Nino would surely be awake on a Sunday, that much Sho had learned already. The fact that he couldn't reach his friend made him worry. A lot.

In the end, Sho still didn't have any idea about where Nino could be. And then, something hit him. Thinking about his LINE conversation with his friend last night, Sho thought that something was wrong. Usually, Aiba would be one of the first people freaking out when something was wrong with Nino, so it was hard for Sho to believe that Aiba took Nino's disappearance so lightly. Even if he wanted to calm him down (or shut him up at such a late hour), the Aiba he knew would have been worried about Nino too – that was, except if he _knew_ something about the other man's whereabouts...

Sho didn't care if Aiba and Jun usually slept in on Sundays until midday, about half an hour later, he was standing in front of their apartment, facing a still half-asleep Aiba, who had opened the door, only in his nightwear and a blanket wrapped around him to keep away the fresh cool air.

"Is he really not here, Aiba?" Sho asked, wanting to confirm what his friend just told him a second ago.

"No, Nino is not here, I told you that already," Aiba said, yawning.

"Aren't you hiding him?!" Sho accused the other, trying to take a look inside his friend's apartment, just to spot Jun approaching them, looking at least as sleepy as his boyfriend.

"Why should I – Sho, will you finally tell me what happened with Nino yesterday?"

Sho blushed. "We… we had some kind of fight, since Nino's confession to Ohno didn't go well and then he kissed _me_ and I told him he shouldn't because, you know - I'm not a stand in for his crush, and then Nino ran away... I waited for him to come back but he didn't and I can't reach him and since he's neither at Ohno's place nor here, where could he be?" the man repeated his question from their LINE conversation. He looked kind of scared. "What if something happened to him? What if he got hurt, or if someone kidnapped him?! Aiba, shouldn't we call the hospital and ask if -"

"Sho, stop, really, stop!" Aiba suddenly cut him in his panic.

"But Aiba –"

"First - stop worrying, OK?" Aiba said, putting his hands on Sho's shoulders to hold him still. "I'm sorry, I lied to you... I know where he is."

Sho looked at his friend, thunderstruck. "Where?!"

"He's at home in his apartment," the other man replied.

Frowning, Sho tried to process what his friend just said. That couldn't be true. "But... his apartment is under renovation."

Slightly embarrassed, Aiba brushed his hand through his hair. "Uhm… well, actually… it's not."

"What?!" Sho couldn't believe his ears. "What does that mean?"

"I think, you should go and ask _him_ ," Aiba said, giving Sho a crooked smile. "I guess there's a lot to talk between you two."

*

Following Aiba's advice, Sho immediately made his way to Nino's apartment complex.

Sho rang the doorbell at least five times before he finally could hear some shuffling from behind the apartment door shortly before it was unlocked and swung open slowly. Then, Sho faced a very embarrassed looking Nino standing in the door way, obviously unable to face him properly.

"You caught me...," Nino murmured.

"Why didn't you tell me you're going home?! Why did you ignore my calls and texts?" Sho started. "Do you have any idea how worried I was?!"

Their eyes met for a moment, then Nino lowered his head. "I'm sorry..."

Sho sighed heavily. He was torn between pulling Nino into a hug, relieved to see that he was fine, and yell at him because Aiba seemed to be right and Nino lied to him. He was so confused... Just why did Nino lie to him? Sho tried to find a reason, thinking about what advantage Nino might have from lying just to get into Sho's apartment and live there, although his own apartment was completely fine... Wait, wasn't Ohno's place much closer to Sho's than to Nino's? Could it be that...

"Why did you lie to me?" Sho finally burst, when the anger and disappointment building up inside of him won. Then, Sho frowned as he let his eyes wander up and down Nino's figure again. "And why are you wearing _my_ sweatshirt?"

Nino blushed and wrapped his arms around himself, to hide the motif at the front of the sweatshirt. "I am not?!"

"Stop kidding me, I recognize my stuff when I see it!" Sho argued. "I was searching for this one since... since you did the laundry for the first time," he finished, when it dawned him where Nino might have gotten hold of that piece of clothing. He frowned. "So why are you wearing that?"

"I... felt cold? And... it smells good?" the younger tried to explain. Not that anything sounded very reasonable to Sho's ears...

"So you... are not only a liar, but also a thief!"

"What?!" Nino pouted. "I _borrowed_ it! That's a difference!"

"Whatever," Sho sighed, giving in. "Ah... No no! Wait, keep it on, it's OK!" Sho waved off, blushing, when he realized that Nino was about to take his sweatshirt off.

The younger man was already half stuck when he pulled the piece of clothing back on, his hair now standing on edge and a pout adorning his face. He looked simply adorable, too adorable, considering that Sho was supposed to be angry at him.

"Nino, tell me... what's this with the faked apartment renovation and everything?" the man asked, "Why did you lie to me?"

"Why do you even want to know?" Nino asked, still wearing his cute pout.

"Aiba told me," Sho simply explained. "Why did you lie to me?"

"Actually, it was Aiba's idea," the younger replied, starting to fiddle with his hands.

Sho groaned. He honestly wasn't even surprised by that reply, however, he still did not understand what all of this meant. "And why did you listen to him?! As if Aiba's ideas were any good half the time!"

"At least, Aiba is sensible and can read the atmosphere, compared to you!" Nino suddenly shot back, surprising Sho.

"Wait, so _I_ am the idiot here now?!"

"Yes, you are an idiot, you don't understand anything!" Nino replied, his head turning red.

"True, I don't understand a single thing that's going on in your head! You show up, turn everything upside down, then I have to find out that you even _lied_ , how am I even supposed to understand you?! So please give me a proper explanation!"

Nino brushed his hand over his face, frustrated. "I wanted to get closer to you, OK? Because... Isn't it obvious? Gosh Sho, I suck at stuff like this. I couldn't _tell_ you, that's why…"

"You couldn't tell me _what_?" Sho asked. "Come on, Nino, just spit it out!"

"I couldn't tell you that… that I _like_ you, you idiot!" Nino burst.

Sho's heart stopped beating for real. At least for a second. This couldn't be. He must have misheard. This didn't make sense at all!

"No you don't," he negated Nino's statement without thinking further.

"Excuse me?!" Nino looked at him, stunned.

"You don't _like_ me," Sho said firmly. "You like Ohno!"

Nino's eyes popped out of his head. "What makes you think I like Oh-chan?"

"Because it's just so obvious," the other man started. "You're so close to each other, you're always touching... you meet him so often, and you blushed when we met him in the supermarket and you moved to my apartment to be closer to him!"

"That's the biggest nonsense I've ever heard!" Nino chimed in, but Sho continued ranting.

"You even talked about him with Aiba on the phone... When we talked about love and you said there may be someone you like -"

"Sho, listen," Nino stopped him. He took a deep breath. "I was talking about _you_ , OK?"

"What?"

No! Sho still couldn't believe it. This would mean that he was wrong for the whole time, that he worried for nothing, that he was jealous for nothing, that he was _suffering_ for nothing. It couldn't be true!

"When we met Oh-chan at the supermarket, he asked me how things are going and yesterday, he tried to encourage me before I was trying to -," Nino didn't finish the sentence, drifting off. He shook his head, trying to continue. "And when I was on the phone with Aiba, we were talking about _you_ … it's _always_ been about you!"

"But...," Sho stumbled, still having a hard time comprehending what Nino was trying to make him believe. "But you and Ohno..."

"He's one of my best friends!" Nino argued. "That I'm touchy with him is just because with him, it's... simple and we know each other for so long... argh, I don't know how to say that but it's different! It doesn't mean that I like him _that_ way."

After processing what Nino just said, Sho asked, "Then why didn't you tell me that you like me?"

"I thought, maybe you already know."

Sho chuckled, surprised. "Definitely not!"

"I get that now," Nino replied, sighing. "However, I was too shy... And then, you said I should think about if I want to risk a friendship... and Aiba told me that you texted him that you don't like this whole situation with me having a crush on you, I thought, you'd push me away anyway -"

"I didn't know you were talking about _me_!"

"Yes, _now_ I know that!"

After a few seconds of silence, Sho laughed. Somehow it made him feel much lighter. His anger slowly but surely vanished, even if the confusion stayed. If what Nino said was true, then everything he thought, everything he said, had been under a misconception, and thus completely stupid and useless... he _really_ was an idiot. The biggest, he ever met.

"You're not taking me seriously...," Nino pouted, when he heard the other laughed.

"Sorry," Sho said. "I'm not laughing because of you... it's just so confusing... you must admit that it's a bit hard to understand you, Nino. It's hard to figure you out, sometimes."

"Is that your way of subtly saying that I am weird?"

"Yesterday," Sho continued, "You kissed me, without warning…"

Nino looked at him for a moment, before he averted his eyes and started murmuring an explanation. "You said if the other person doesn't get the hints… I should _show_ my feelings. I was too scared to _tell_ you about my feelings because I feared you would reject me. And then I went ahead with actually _kissing_ you... I can't believe it myself but I just couldn't give up just like this... Then, exactly that happened and I didn't even need to tell you..."

So it was his own fault that Nino had been acting strange, Sho thought, although everything seemed to be just a huge misunderstanding. If he didn't think the whole time that Nino was talking about _Ohno_ … everything made so much more sense now. Nino's behaviour, why he tried to get closer to Sho, why he cooked for him, why he asked him how he should make his crush understand, why he _practised_ kissing with him when he was drunk. He wanted to hear from Sho, how he'd wanted to be approached, wanted to be considerate, wanted to test the waters. It had irritated Sho so much that Nino was consulting his friends behind his back, that he didn't see the woods for the trees. He had been so blind…

"Do you really _like_ me?" Sho asked.

"…Yes."

"So let me confirm. This whole thing, with Ohno and such, it's just a misunderstanding?" Sho once more wanting to confirm.

"Yes." Nino nodded.

Sho frowned. "But…"

"How often do you want me to say it, are you teasing me?!" Nino exploded. "I like you, OK? I. Like. You. There you have it," Nino groaned, frustrated, as he buried his face behind his hand. By now, his head was red like a tomato.

Sho would be lying if he said he didn't like the view of Nino being so deeply embarrassed – just because of _him_. It made him excited. His heart was beating fast. Finally. Finally, Sho's heart could believe it. Seeing Nino so earnest, yelling out his feelings, Sho was finally able to understand. But still, there was something about this situation that he didn't really get. It was too good to be true, wasn't it? Something like this would only happen in movies, wouldn't it?

"What makes you even like me?" Sho asked in a low voice.

Nino's chin dropped and he gazed at his friend as if he just asked the most stupid question in the world. Sho froze.

"How can someone _not_ like you? You're awesome! You're admirable! You're intelligent, you're handsome, you're cute... and you're so nice...," it all came spilling out of Nino. To the contrary of his claim, not being able to _tell_ Sho, now he seemed pretty talkative about everything, as if the dam was finally broken. "Do you remember when I got drunk in front of you for the very first time?" This must be years ago... "I was too drunk to get home by myself and you carried me all the way to my apartment. Then you stayed until I fell asleep properly and when I woke up I found water and an aspirin besides my bed..."

"Every friend would do that...," Sho said, blushing slightly.

Nino chuckled. "No. Jun and Aiba usually just stuff me into the next taxi and that's it. And Oh-chan would rather fall asleep next to me in the restaurant than bothering to bring me home," Nino continued. And there was more... "Also, do you remember that one time when we thought it was a good idea to go ice skating and I managed to hurt my foot in the first round? You stayed with me at the side of the rink and we talked until the others finished, sharing some hot chocolate..."

Yes, Sho remembered that day. It was such a precious memory to him. "I didn't want you to be alone for all the time but to be honest, I didn't do it because I'm a _nice guy_ , it's quite the opposite... I did it because I'm selfish and I didn't want anyone else spend their time alone with you..."

Nino frowned, not sure how to interpret Sho's confession.

The taller man took a deep breath and then, finally, spit it out. "Nino, I like you too."

Nino just kept staring at Sho, trying to comprehend what the other just said.

"But… you dumped me last evening!"

"No!" Sho immediately shook his head. "That was just… I-I didn't think you'd feel the same, since I always thought you have a crush on Oh-chan, you see? I thought you're frustrated because things with him didn’t really work out or something like that and I didn't want to be Ohno's substitute..."

"Oh gosh," Nino murmured, understanding the whole problem at once.

"I thought I would never have a chance and I didn't want to risk our friendship. I decided to just love you in silence, but it became harder and harder," Sho continued.

"But now you're OK with risking everything?

Sho nodded.

"Seriously, you should have just told me, it would have been so much easier for both of us!" Nino burst.

"Look, who's talking," Sho replied, chuckling.

"Touché," Nino said. "I... I am the biggest idiot on earth, that's why. I am sorry, for lying to you, about the apartment and such..."

"It's OK. I guess I should be honoured?" Sho raised his eyebrows as he laughed. "And as you said, it was Aiba's idea, right?"

"Yeah, let's blame him," Nino chuckled.

They stood there in silence for a few seconds, nobody knowing what else to say. It seemed like everything that needed to be said was out now. But still there was this tension in the air, waiting for a conclusion.

"Uhm... How about it, I borrowed some DVDs yesterday. Want to come to my place for a lazy Sunday on the couch?" Sho finally offered.

Nino nodded. "Hm, sounds good."

"But before that...," Sho took a few steps closer again, and reached his hands to put them on Nino's hips, holding him close. They locked eyes again and after a moment of silence, Sho continued. "I'm going to kiss you now, OK?"

"Don't ask, idiot!" Nino couldn't hide his satisfied smirk.

He gazed at Sho with a warmth that made the other man melt. Sho let his arms slide around Nino, placing them on his lower back and pressed him slightly closer. When Sho leaned down, closing the distance between them and their lips touched in a light kiss, it – finally - was like everything fell into the right place.

*

Of course, the new couple was _the_ topic at their next Friday friends’ dinner. Aiba, Jun and Ohno already knew about the new turn of events, of course, however, it was the first time they met since Sho and Nino officially became a couple.

It was also no surprise, that Sho took the chance to (once more) complain to Aiba about his "brilliant" idea that he had set into Nino's brain, to lie at him about his apartment and "trick" him into living together. Not that after how things had ended, Sho could _really_ complain. After all, if things had not happened as they had, he and Nino most likely would still like each other without the other even knowing about it. However, there might have been some easier ways to get them together.

"See the positive side-effect of this," Jun said, reasoning his boyfriend's actions. "You already tested how living together in a relationship would work and I think, you can count it as a success."

"Obviously," Ohno chuckled, already slightly tipsy.

"Do you really expect me to be _grateful_ now, Aiba? You brought chaos into my life!" Sho chuckled with a raised eyebrow.

His friend sighed after taking a big sip from his beer. "I brought _Nino_ into your life!"

"OK yes, I _am_ grateful for that," Sho admitted with a big smile.

"Thank you, Masaki, really," Nino added, and everyone looked at him, surprised.

Sho locked eyes with his new boyfriend who was as always sitting right next to him, and under the table, where nobody would see it, he reached his hand to touch Nino's. He laughed happily, when Nino blushed, trying to hide his bashfulness by using his free hand to stuff his face with grilled meat.

"So, when are you going to move in together?" Ohno asked with a smirk, causing Aiba to almost fall over from laughing.

Sho and Nino exchanged another look. Maybe, they should just tell the others that Nino did not take his gaming consoles back to his apartment, yet, and that they would stay there for a little longer, most likely.

*** THE END ***


End file.
